Jo's Crafty Place: Gentleman's Emporium

Elegant Times Birthday Card

For this card I've used a page from the Gentleman's Emporium 6x6 pad. Along with the decorative paper, I've used some black card and some beige pearl card from my stash.

The card blank is made from an A4 sheet of card folded in half and then trimmed to create a square card blank (14.8cm square). Cut a mat of black card to fit the card blank leaving a white border around the edges.

Trim the page from the paper pad so the black card will form a narrow border around the edges - but don't stick it down yet.

I used one of the border hot foil stamps and grey foil to create the decorative panel, and matted the panel onto black card. Take a look at my video for tips on getting the border to foil onto your card straight.

The border is mounted on Couture Creations black foam strips and stuck down on the decorative paper, so it can be trimmed to length stuck in place, before the decorative paper is stuck down on the black card.

Using the foam strips makes it easy to stick the border trip down straight, as you can start peeling the backing off at one end, stick that in place and make sure the strip is parallel to the edge of the card and then peel the rest of the backing off while holding the panel in place.

For the pocket watch, cut it out twice from black card and glue the layers together using a wet craft glue - this adds both dimension and strength. I've used gilding waxes to highlight the details of the watch face.

After applying the gilding wax, stick the die cut watch down onto some of the beige card using a wet craft glue and trim around the edge. It's easier to do this before the glue dries so you can get the scissors under the edge of the die cut.

The chain is a die from an older collection - Be Merry, 3 Chained Baubles. I cut it twice in black card and stuck the 2 layers together with wet glue, used gilding wax to add highlights and shaped while the glue was wet, so that it would keep its shape when the glue dries.

The sentiment is foiled using the same grey foil on the beige card. I've used one of the Modern Essentials Cut, Foil and Emboss dies from the Nesting Inset Oval Frames set.