Gilded Christmas

Hi everyone.  I recently bought several colours of gilding flakes and I'm trying different ways of using them.

For today's card, I stamped with them.  I sponged gilding flake glue onto my holly and berries stamp.  I stamped onto white card stock, then left to dry until tacky (only takes a few minutes).  I keep my gilding flakes in a large plastic container.  I held my card front over top of the open container, placed the flakes on top, and let the excess fall back into the container.  To finish, I burnished the flakes with a scrubby pad over top of a piece of copy paper and then transferred all the leftover bits back into the container. This works for me to keep the flakes under control as much as possible.  They are super light, so they tend to "float". :)  I use a wet silicone pad to wipe any stray flakes off my work table.

I added a strip of 1/2" Be Creative Tape (by Sookwang) along the edge to add even more gilding flakes.  I've used Autumn Leaves Gilding Flakes for both the holly image and the 1/2" strip ... the colours are SO beautiful!

The holly and berries stamp is a gift I received from my good friend, Mary H.  Thanks so much Mary.  Doesn't the image look beautiful with the gilding flakes??!!

I die-cut a small bird from heated copper and popped him up over his holly vine perch.   I used a wafer thin die from Poppy Stamps to cut the copper.  I usually have trouble cutting thick copper with these thin dies, but my good friend Nancy S. sent me a metal cutting plate to use with my Big Shot which makes cutting so much easier.  The metal plate doesn't warp like the acrylic ones, so the dies have even pressure and always cut cleanly.  It really works well, giving me clean cuts even with intricate dies that normally cause me grief with the acrylic cutting plates.  The wonderful thing about the metal plate is I won't have to replace it. :)  Thanks again Nancy!

Edited to add:  Nancy developed this metal plate and had a machinist friend make them up for her.  They are not available in stores.  If you are interested, send me an email (my email form is in the right hand column near the top).  Include your email and I'll pass it along to Nancy.  She can then let you know more details.  Thanks.

Stamps:  Holly and Berries (Penny Black); Christmas Sampler (Paper Smooches)
Paper:  White (Neenah 110 lb. card stock)
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories & Tools:  Flake & Glitter Glue (Cosmic Shimmer); Autumn Leaves Gilding Flakes (Cosmic Shimmer), sponge, scrubby pad (Rub-it Scrub-it from Inkssentials), Be Creative 1/2" Tape (Sookwang), copper sheet, butane torch, Nestled Bird die (Poppy Stamps), gold embossing powder, heat tool