Letter Press Effect

I was watching a demo of a letter press system the other day and, whilst I'm sure it was great value if you were planning to make 100 wedding invites with matching menus etc, I just wanted to have a play without buying anything new.  I bought some of Tim Holtz reflections stamps recently and whilst I was watching a video to remind me of their different uses I realised I already had all I needed to try out a letter press effect.

I took a Tim Holtz embossing folder from the Fancy and Floral Frames set and inked over the inside where the flowers are raised with a chalk ink pad.  Using a piece of cream card larger than the size of the folder, I placed it on the non-inked side, shut the folder and ran it through my Big Kick, et voila!

A letter press effect engraved look with the ink pressed into the image.

As this card was to be for an entry into QVC's Christmas Card competition I used a QVC message die cut and decorated it with punched pine branches and a coiled paper pine cone. 

Before anyone shouts and wants to know how it was done, I haven't had advanced access to Tim's fab new pine cone die!  I made it by coiling a spiral of scalloped paper.  I can see me using these a lot on my Christmas projects, so the die will definitely be one of my purchases when it hits the shops in the UK.

If you're a QVC customer, and you have registered to leave product feedback, please pop over and have a look at my entry and leave a comment too if you like. (It's not up to view yet, but hopefully my submission will be approved shortly.) 

As well as the QVC competition, I'm going to sneak this one in at Winter Wonderland for their men/boys challenge as I think it would be great for an elderly uncle or anyone else who prefers a more traditional style of card.

** Kate **