Fabulous Finds Friday — Elizabeth Craft’s Soft Finish Paper

Paper artists are a tactile bunch and Elizabeth Craft Designs has given us something worthwhile to touch in — the new Soft Finish Cardstock. I mentioned this product on my blog here, but finally had a chance to play with it. And it is, indeed, lovely!

The paper, which comes in two weights, is almost velvety to touch with just a dash of texture. It’s not as heavy as most watercolor papers, but I found it held up nicely to various coloring techniques, including watery applications.

For example….

  

Here are four pieces of the card stock that I abused with Distress Inks, sprays, water, etc. (The trio on the left is the lighter 85 lb. weight, the blue/green piece is 100 lb.)

For the first pink piece on the left I smooshed Distress inks (Victorian Velvet, Seedless Preserves and Tumbled Glass) on my craft sheet, spritzed with water, then pushed my card through the inks. (I used the textured side of the card stock.) I heated it, then filled in some blanks with more color. The second pink piece was created with the left over pools of ink.

Here’s one finished card:

The dies are from Elizabeth Craft, the sequins from Lawn Fawn. The purple card stock is a discontinued Paper Source line.

The bright yellow/green piece below was created using Distress sprays (Marmalade, Broken China and a spritz of metallic Bronze). I was impressed at how well the paper held up. And here’s the card:

The Tim Holtz crazy bird was stamped and black embossed on the smooth side of the card stock, then colored in with Faber-Castell PITT Big markers scribbled on a craft sheet and applied with a water brush. The bird was fussy cut and mounted with a piece of fun foam (adhered with ScraPerfect’s The Best Glue Ever). The circle (Hero Arts) was stamped in grey and Hello! (Tim Holtz Bird Crazy) in black. I also added a few clear dots of Liquid Glass from Close to My Heart for a bit more subtle dimension:

By the way, the Soft Finish paper also cuts like a dream:

I used some of the leftover pieces for these great kimonos (Elizabeth Craft Designs).

I’ll have another card made with the same papers in the next post — a Halloween card.

Thanks for tuning in!