Gilded Stenciled Birthday

Good morning stamping friends! Just one more day until we all share the wonderful traditions of Thanksgiving: eating turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce, watching football on tv and poring over the Black Friday sale ads as we plot our shoppping routes!
Oh, yes, and get a much needed afternoon nap! That's on my agenda for tomorrow! :)

Today's card share is a one I designed for my Just Cards classes earlier this month. I was inspired to stencil on cardstock by two Christmas cards I'd received in some swaps, so I purchased the Vintage Ornament stencils with the intent of casing them. BUT, when I saw the different stencil layers in the package, I was drawn to this flourish. I thought it would make a gorgeous card all on it's own, so that's where my idea for this card started.

I used Kraft cardstock as my card base and sponged the edges with some Soft Suede ink. It was trimmed up with the Corner Rounder on the bottom corners. Then I put a little Dotto adhesive (removable) on the back of the flourish stencil and placed it on the card front. Using my Sponge Daubers, I sponged Rich Razzleberry ink through the stencil onto the card.
Once I had the color saturation I was happy with, I removed the stencil and rubbed off the Dotto residue. The greeting, from the Sincere Salutations stamp set was stamped in more Soft Suede ink and then I highlighted it with my Paper Piercer and Mat Pack.

Now for the fun part!

I took out my much neglected Versamarker and traced a few parts of the stenciled image with it. Then I heat embossed it with Gold Embossing Powder and the Heat Tool. How cool is that?! I know, it's probably not anything new, but I love the elegance of this card! Even after being a stamper for over 14 years, I still get excited when something turns out so cool!

Two more things for the front of this card - I used my Color Spritzer tool and my Soft Suede marker to add some speckles to the card front. It is finished off with a piece of Chocolate Chip 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon tied all the way around the card front.

I couldn't leave the inside of the card unfinished, so I added a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock, also sponged and corner rounded. As you can see, I stenciled just a bit of the design in the lower left corner and added a greeting from the Heard From the Heart stamp set.

It's a super simple card with a lot of impact - I was so pleased with how easy it was to do this technique. I'll definitely be doing this again!
Have a wonderful day doing all your prep for the big day tomorrow! If you have time, check back in with me, I'll have my UDI Blog Inspiration Challenge project posted for you to see.
So thankful for you all!
~~Robin