International Highlights July Winners Blog Hop; Gratitude Inspired by Thailand

So very excited to be voted in the top ten entires in Kylie’s International Blog Highlight in July with this card. Here is the post and a big thank you to everyone who voted for my card.

Gratitude Inspired by Thailand

The top ten winners now get to hop with Kylie, and the theme for our projects is the same “Gratitude inspired by Thailand”.

But what to create? For my previous project, I imagined being on a beach in Thailand, watching a beautiful sunset. For this project, I remembered that Kylie had shown us some gorgeous images of beautiful Thai ladies in traditional dress, beautiful patterned silk with lots of gold highlights.

So I pulled out any of my Stampin’ Up! goodies that included gold and created my take on a swathe of beautiful Thai Silk. If you aren’t a fan of green, best to look away now! 🙂

This card was such a blast to create. Here was my inspiration (thanks Mr Google).  I used mostly Tranquil Tide colouring, so the green is a little bit different.

Applying ink over Gold Foil Patterned Paper.

Doesn’t the ink over the gold foil paper come up superbly?  I used a sponge brayer to apply the ink right over the top of the gold foil patterned papers. The ink just wipes right off the gold foil, leaving a gold on colour design. I used the Gold Foil paper from the Eastern Palace Specialty Designer Series Paper because it is so exotic. And the little strips between the layers are one of the foil papers from the Bundle of Love Specialty Designer Series Paper.

Oh my! This has just opened up a ton of new designer series papers to use!!

Applying Ink over Designer Series Paper

So I then tried the same thing with the Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper, just add some colour right over the top of the patterns with the sponge roller.  How gorgeous is this?  It reminds me of chintz fabric.

 

Gold Foil Designer Acetate

To bring some gold into this layer, I overlaid it with one of the Gold Foil Designer Acetate designs.

Heat Embossing on Embossing Paste

I used a technique shared by Jay and Barry from Mitosu Crafts here … heat embossing on embossing paste to add a textured gold touch over Tranquil Tide cardstock.

Gold Embossing on Gold Foil Card

And how could you go past some gold embossing on Gold Foil Card.  I used the Paisley design stamp from Paisley and Posies stamp set to achieve a swirly, detailed pattern.

Stitching it all together ….

So after creating all my separate elements, I cut them into strips. The Eastern Palace Gold Pattern lends itself to a little bit of fussy cutting, and the Bundle of Love striped paper was perfect for cutting the narrow strips to go between the strips.

 

I adhered all the strips down onto a 13.5cm x 13.5cm piece of Tranquil Tide cardstock, starting with the gold embossed strip right in the centre and finishing with the Eastern Palace paper at top and bottom. I was able then to slip the Gold patterned acetate just under the peaks from the Eastern Palace fussy cut paper until it lodged in the liquid glue and encapsulate the other edge under the joining Bundle of Love strip.  No adhesive show!!

It did look pretty messy at this stage, with strips of paper hanging off the base square everywhere, but once I had trimmed it down, it became this gorgeous sampler of Thai Silk.  (Big tip … you will need something stronger than the Paper Trimmer to chop this baby down … I used my guillotine). If you only have a paper trimmer, I would chop each strip to size as you glue them down.

Thankful Grateful Blessed

For the greeting, I gold embossed the Thanks greeting from the Paisleys and Posies stamp set onto a piece of White Vellum paper and then die cut it with one of the Lots of Labels thinlits. I die cut a matching piece from the coloured Fresh Floral Designer Series Paper and then cut them both down at top and bottom to better fit the greeting.  To adhere the vellum to the patterned paper, I sponged a light layer of Multi purpose liquid glue over the back of the vellum.

A quick whip around with some Gold Metallic thread to which I attached a Gold Mini Tassel, and then I adhered the whole shebang to the front of a 140cm square folded card (Tranquil Tide).

As always, I decorated the inside of the card while I had all my supplies out.

I had such a lot of fun pottering away at my craft table creating this card. It is a very different card from my first Thailand inspired card, but I was very happy with the end result. What colour would you have used?

I can’t wait to check out what everyone else has created for this blog hop … it is great to see all the different interpretations and you can be sure you will get some great inspiration from the wonderful designers.

Thanks for stopping by today!