Friday, July 18, 2025

CRACKED POT KINTSUGI

Today I cracked my flower pot on purpose because I wanted to "repair" it with silver!


This card uses my new Fairless Stampin' Flair Sketch #7.

What I like about this sketch is that it has many possibilities for variation.  You can obviously change from landscape to portrait by rotating it 90 degrees, but you can also place the 3 layered panels in any of the four corner.  I positioned my layers in the bottom left corner rather than the top left.

The three little circles can be circle die cuts, or maybe you just punch a half circle out of the layers.  Alternatively,  think even further outside of the box and change them to something other than circles.  Remember, sketches are just idea starters.

As you can see, I used one of the circles for my sentiment, but the other two "circles" are now butterflies from Beautiful Butterflies Dies.

This is also great sketch to show off your designer series paper (DSP).  My layers are three different patterns from Kintsugi Inspirations DSP, and I used a corner rounder punch (retired) on the upper right corners.

The layer on the card front was embossed with the Joined Together 3D embossing folder.  You could also emboss the front of the card base directly, but I prefer embossing a separate layer and then adhering it to the card base.  I find it easier, but it is just my personal preference.

The flowerpot was first stamped with Misty Moonlight ink on Misty Moonlike cardstock for a tone-on-tone look.  It was then "cracked" by stamping the pot with the smaller of the two "crack" stamps using VersaMark ink and heat embossing with Silver embossing powder.

After stamping the small flower with Misty Moonlight ink on Basic White cardstock a Blender Pen was used to pull some of the ink into the flower petals.  The Kintsugi "crack" dies and the smaller "flower" die were used to complete the bouquet.

To decorate the inside of the card I used strips of the same three DSP designs and rounded the corner with the retired Corner Rounder Punch.

The flower was stamped and colored using the same process as for the card front.  After the coloring was finished, the DSP strips were adhered over the bottom of the flower stem.

For more details, use this link to download a FREE TUTORIAL.

The products used are shown below.  NOTE:   You can purchase the suite or items within the suite individually.  I have shown them both ways below.

Product List


Wednesday, July 16, 2025

REPAIR IT WITH COPPER - KINTSUGI

Today's card uses several of the products included in the Kintsugi Inspirations Suite and all of the "Kintsugi repairs" are made with copper embossing powder.

The background was embossed with the Joined Together 3D embossing folder which is one of the products in the suite.  The "cracks" in the background where heat embossed with Copper embossing powder (EP). 

I experimented with a couple different ways to add the Copper EP in the cracks.  My first attempt was to add VersaMark ink to the raised "cracks" on the embossing folder and then dry embossed the Basic White cardstock.  After dry embossing, I added Copper embossing powder to the embossed Basic White cardstock and heat embossed.  However, the "cracks" were not covered with copper as much as I envisioned.  So, I then took that same embossed Basic White cardstock and used a VersaMark Pen to add additional ink to the debossed cracks and heat embossed a second time with Copper EP.  That filled in the "cracks" nicely.

If I make a second card, I think I will skip the first attempt and use only the 2nd process.

The vase was stamped with VersaMark ink on Basic White and heat embossed with Copper EP.  I used the coordinating Inspiring Imperfections dies from the bundle to die cut the vase.

To add just a bit of color, I used a Blending Brush with Lost Lagoon ink to highlight the vase.

The bouquet in the vase was created with two additional dies from the bundle.  The "flowers" (I'm not really sure what those are, but they qualify as flowers for me.) were die cut from copper foil.  To create the "twig" in the vase, I used the longer of the two Kintsugi crack dies to die cut a twig from Blackberry Bliss cardstock.

The twig and the flowers were arranged in the vase and the assembly was adhered to the focal point.

The sentiment from Inspiring Imperfections was heat embossed with white embossing powder on Blackberry Bliss cardstock and die cut with another of the dies from the die bundle.


To dress up the inside of the card, I used two layers of Basic White cardstock.  The Inspiring Imperfections sentiment was heat embossed in copper and a copper foil strip was embossed with the Joined Together embossing folder.

If you enjoy heat embossing, you will love making this card.  Heat embossing is a technique that never ceases to amaze me -- particularly when I'm using metallic embossing powder.  If you also enjoy heat embossing, you will love making this card. 

For all the measurements and step-by-step instructions, use this link to download a copy of the tutorial.

Stampin' Up! no longer carries VersaMark Pens (also called "embossing pens"), but they are available at craft stores and also on Amazon.

A list of the Stampin' Up! products used is shown below.


Product List

Monday, July 14, 2025

KINTSUGI FAN CARD

This week I am featuring products from the Kintsugi Inspirations Suite.  About a year ago, I made a video for my Learning with Friends series showing how to do the Paper Kintsugi Technique.

Well, with the Kintsugi Inspirations Suite from the 2025-2026 Annual Catalog, Stampin' Up! has done all the work for us!

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by fixing the broken areas with urushi lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum. It embraces the history of a piece and believes the repair makes the object even more beautiful.

You can see the gold "cracks" in the design of some of the Kintsugi Inspirations Designer Series Paper (DSP) patterns.  It makes very interesting and beautiful patterns in the DSP doesn't it?

I was introduced to the Fan Fold "Fun Fold" card by my good friend and fellow demonstrator, Kathi, from Simply Kards by Kathi.  Since I was working with the Kintsugi Inspirations Suite, I couldn't wait to give this card layout a try with its beautiful DSP.  My card features three of the pretty designs from the Kintsugi collection.  Since the "cracks" in the DSP designs were "filled" with gold, I used gold Textured Metallic foil as the accent mats on my fan and on the sentiment.

The texture of this foil creates even more shine and glimmer than regular foil cardstock.  It is gorgeous!

If you would like to make this Fan Fold card with your favorite DSP, use this link to download my tutorial for all the instructions.  Several easy to follow diagrams are included to make cutting the cardstock and DSP easy to understand.  Cutting triangular pieces can be a bit tricky sometimes -- particularly if you are picky, like I am, and like to have equal borders all around the DSP.   I tweaked some of the dimensions that you may see from other demos to insure that my borders are equal.

Once you get your pieces cut, all that is left is simple assembly!

The beautiful gold Flower Accents are also from the Kintsugi Inspirations Suite.  They give the Textured Metallic Gold foil a run for its money with their shimmer and shine!

On the inside of the card I used the same Misty Moonlight Kintsugi DSP design so it coordinates with the largest fan layer on the card front.

Below is a list of all products used on the card.

Product List