Celtic Notecards

Some of you know that I used to do calligraphy and illumination (medieval book painting). That gave me a deep and abiding love for Celtic knotwork. So when Papertrey came out with a knotwork set, I jumped on it and the coordinating dies.

Like many stamps, these are ones that I love in theory rather than practice, and I spent too many hours making okay-but-not-great cards with this set. Finally, I actually made four cards (using just one of the stamps) that make my CAS-lovin' heart go pitter patter.

To start, I embossed the outline border stamp in detail silver embossing powder several times on a scrap of paper. Then, I colored the images with cool colors of Copics.

Then, I embossed a few of the same stamp with extra-fine gold embossing powder and colored them with warm colors of Copics. (Sorry I forgot to shoot a close-up of the orange knotwork.)

These cards are 6 1/4" x 3.5" and fit a standard envelope I buy at Marco's paper. I die cut extras to stack for a bit more dimension, but otherwise, these cards are as simple as they look.

A Note on Papertrey Dies: I've noticed that some Papertrey dies leave marks on the die cuts, but the Celtic Knots dies cut cleanly. The big border die needs some shimming to cut all the way through, though, especially on the long sides. Not sure why, but I may have violated my no-swearing resolution trying to push out all those chads before deciding to just cut the thing again.

I'll show a few of my cards with this stamp set over the next few days, but by far my favorite technique is the one I showed today. Such a pretty result!

As for changes to the blog, I'm still ruminating.

If you think of it on Monday, say a little prayer for the Cooper. He's going to have a rough day at the vet. Thanks!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Celtic Knots
ink: VersaMark
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Copic markers, coordinating dies, glue, embossing powder, heat gun, Embossing Buddy