Adding Dimension Without Flab

I don't know about you but if you live in the U.S. you will be charged an extra $.20 to have your card hand stamped when you go to mail it. The other thing I found out is if you use pop dots don't put a stamp on the envelope. Instead if it doesn't need to be hand stamped have the clerk put a postage meter stamp on it. Otherwise the person on the other end may end up being charged $.20 even though it was a thickness that did not require extra postage. So having said that you may be wondering how you can do a card that is different and has some dimension without paying extra. One way is to add Gesso. The way we are going to do this it is going to be flat. So let's get started.

Here I put a dab of Gesso on a piece of scrap paper. A little bit goes a long way in fact I almost got too much here.

Next load your tool. I'm using here a pan scraper left over from the days when I would give people who were cooking samples a break and clean their pans of stuck on gunk. A credit card you don't use or empty gift card will work just as well.

Drag your tool over your media at a slight angle. You can go just one direction or both. 

Keep dragging with Gesso adding more to your tool if need be until you are satisfied with the look. It should be smooth  to the touch. Then let dry. Your card stock may curl but you can use an embossing tool or iron it between two sheets of paper on low heat with no steam.

At this point you can leave it as it is. You could paint over it or rub inks or chalk over it. You can stamp over the Gesso surface.

 I used Stazon royal purple ink and my tile rubber stamp. I stamped first on scrap paper which the darker impression is and then stamped on my Gesso panel. I overlapped the stamp and love the way it turned out with some areas darker than others.

Here is my finished card using the Gesso panel.

The flower is a cutting file from My Scrap Chick. I dragged the two larger petals over an ink pad. I somehow overlooked the smallest petal. Then I spritzed all the petals with my faux glimmer mist.  I did the same with the leaves. I did learn that it is best to try out the ink pad first though on a scrap piece of paper. My card stock totally absorbed all the distress ink on the leaves leaving me with dark blotchy areas. That is all right because to me they looked more natural after I sprayed them. The circle I heat embossed  with enamel but decided that I didn't want it to be totally smooth. 

The Gesso panel is put on card stock which I sprayed with re-positional adhesive and put squares of wrapping paper that I cut using my Cameo. Then I sprinkled on my embossing enamel and embossed. I will have to do some tweaking with this process as some of the squares blew off while I was heat embossing. Luckily the embossing media was tight so I was able to glue them back and still had the bronze grout. The grout isn't really going to give it thickness but like the Gesso will give the card more dimension. You could really get creative using triangles,squares of different sizes,different shapes etc. LOL! I don't think I have the patience anymore to glue on a bunch of small circles but this is a way you could also use punched out shapes. This would also be another way to use scrap paper or even some bad photos if you have some laying around.

I hope I've inspired you to try a couple of different things.  Now I'm off to see about cutting some other shapes with some wrapping paper. Woo Hoo! Another inexpensive alternative for pretty paper.

Have a wonderful crafting time and thank you for stopping by.