I am always on the lookout for new techniques and thanks to my friend, Julie, I have one to share with you. It is called duo-printing chlorophyll. It doesn’t involve stamps or ink for the focal image – rather it allows you to take something from nature (in this case a maple leaf) and let its chlorophyll do the work for you with a little help from your Big Shot.
This card starts with two pieces of Watercolor Paper. I recommend you use it rather than card stock because it will help the chlorophyll sink into the paper and give you a more defined image. Why two pieces, you ask? Well, with this technique you get a positive and a negative from each press and both can be used to make cards.
I took a lovely maple leaf from the tree out back (important to try and get a fresh one as you want it to be juicy) and sandwiched it between the two pieces of Watercolor Paper making sure the textured side of the paper was towards the leaf. I put this between a folded piece of plain copy paper and then ran it through the Big Shot with the usual cutting sandwich – the extra thickness of the cutting plate helps a lot but if your leaf is really thick you may want to just use the regular embossing sandwich. It takes practice to know which works best, so grab a couple of leaves to work with.
Once I had the imprinted leaf images, I selected the one I wanted to make my card. I added a length of Burlap ribbon with a smaller piece knotted to the left side. Then, I layered the focal panel, using Tombow glue, onto a mat of Wood Textures designer paper to keep the natural feel. I then popped this up on dimensionals to a second mat, made with the Painted Autumn designer series paper. I had trimmed it so there was a really narrow border – wanted some of the colors to show through but not dominate. You can just barely see it peeking out. The finished focal piece was adhered to a card base of Old Olive card stock using Tombow glue.
The sentiment is from the Flourishing Phrases stamp set. It was punched with a 1-1/2″ circle punch and matted with a 1-1/2″ circle punched from a scrap of the Painted Autumn designer series paper, cut in half and adhered to each side with Tombow glue. It was then glued to the focal panel. Lastly, three enamel glitter dots were added in the upper right corner.
So the next time you go for a walk in the woods, be sure to pick up some leaves so you can try out this technique. It really is soft and lovely and a change from the traditional stamped card. As always, if you have any questions or need help ordering the supplies used in this card, pop me a note and I will be happy to assist you. Ta for now!