Paint Chips?!? I'm sure many of you already knew about these but I just discovered this very cool technique/idea so I had to try it out. Nowadays, at the local hardware store, you can pick up some beautiful 4 color or 3 color paint chips - when trimmed down they work perfectly as a matted layer for a card front - AND they can be embossed via your Cuttlebug as well. Here are some different ones I made up in matter of minutes. Versatile - fun - unique and I have been able to work with at least one of the colors in each of the palettes quite nicely with ink or ribbon etc.
For the hostess card I used my new Stampin Up embossing plate which I love because it's not the ENTIRE card front but a good portion of it - I added some sheer ribbon, a homemade flower and button and a sentiment cut with the Labels 4 nestie then sponged lightly with my silver ink for contrast. You can see the detail of the card here.
I typically decorate my envies as well as my cards so I used the same embossing plate to emboss my envelope - gave some cool texture to the envie and I didn't have to stamp it :-)
My one warning is that sometimes when you emboss the chip it will crack and you'll get white coming through the colors. So far I have been lucky - I have found a COPIC that matched perfectly and was able to "touch up" my paint chip (how ironic is that) so you can't see the cracking.
If you try this out please link back for me - I'd love to see what you do with the paint chips too - I went for quick, easy, simple layouts with this batch - I think these would be cute as a gift set of cards.Thanks for looking :-) Your kind comments and words of encouragement are a real spirit lifter and mojo activator!
