MAKE IT EASY: VELLUM GIFT CARD

This image was a free sample sent in a Dover Publication e-mail (see WORTHY OF MENTION, July 7). Love it! The original image was larger than I wanted, so I set my printer program to the wallet setting and selected one print.

One tip...when you save a free Dover image to your hard drive, be sure to label it so you know which Dover book it came from. It's very frustrating to have a fantastic image and not knowing
which of the bizillion Dover books it came from. Don't bother asking me which Dover book has this image...

After printing the image on Grafix Platimun Vellum, I ran over to my thermal embossing table (it's across the room from my computer...but that's another story) and sprinkled Detail Clear Embossing Powder Candy Store Powder over the image, shook off the excess and melted the powder. The ink won't be absorbed instantly by the vellum, so you'll have time to get the powder sprinkled on the image...provided you don't fiddle and diddle after printing.

This vellum is heavy, and it didn't distort when I was heating the powder. Also helps that my heat gun isn't a paint stripper...I don't like those super hot guns so never use them.

After the paper cooled, it was folded along the top edge of the vase to form the card. The card was placed on a flat surface with the image side down.

A piece of 3L Scrapbook Adhesives Adhesive Transfer sheet was positioned with the top edge of the adhesive along the fold line at the top of the image.

The release paper was removed from the adhesive, and a piece of vellum slightly larger than the image was placed on the adhesive. Two thickness of vellum are needed for the front of the card so that any writing will not be visible through the image. The card was folded and cut out along the outer edges (don't cut along the fold line!).

Staedtler Photo Decorating Pens Pastels were used to color the image. These pens provided a muted look and were perfect for this vellum which has a soft iridescent pearl-like appearance.

If you'd prefer a greeting card rather than a gift card, select a larger image from your printer program...or how about a full sized image with a black velvet paper mat in an antiqued gold frame?

Decisions, decisions...