Inspire Me Monday: Showcasing Vellum

Hi Power Poppy friends!  Today it’s Christine bringing you a little fun for your Monday.  We’re going to do a whirlwind tour through the possibilities that using vellum brings for your card making. I’ve got five cards to show you with different applications.  Let’s jump in!

Vellum is such a perfect material for so many effects.  It adds that slightly-opaque yet slightly-transparent layer, which in turn gives you a dreamy or softened effect that’s really pretty.  There are so many ways to use it!

1.  Colouring on Vellum

A gorgeous effect that works on vellum is colouring.  Because it has a bit of a slick coating on it, it’s very different from colouring on regular paper.  One way I like to use it is to emboss an image on the front of the vellum, and then colour on the back.  There’s two reasons for this, one - Copics shouldn’t touch embossing lines as it will clog your nibs, and two because it blends very differently than on regular paper so using that opaque nature of vellum allows you to disguise some of those marker lines by colouring on the back.   Here I’ve embossed the lovely peonies from Dynamic Duos: Peonies & Tulips with white embossing powder on vellum.  

Here you can see the back of my vellum from the card above where I’ve coloured.  The markers really do blend well on vellum, but you definitely get a stroky sort of look.  But once you turn the vellum over, that really gets muted and it still looks great.  So, there’s two benefits to this, one, you don’t have to be as particular about your blending and strokes, and two you get to use really bold colours and they’re muted slightly on the side of the vellum that is showing.  

Here you can see the difference in what the right-side-up side looks like.  

And here’s a close-up of the finished design with a lovely word die, sparkling ribbon and rhinestones. Always a lovely way to use vellum, and a great style to have in your creative toolbox.  

2.  Softening Coloured Images

I love bold colours, I can’t help myself.  I love colouring with bold colours too!  But, there are times when you want to create a mood or tone that’s softer.  A layer of vellum is the perfect touch.  I knew I wanted to make these gorgeous Ranunculus flowers into a card that could be used for a sympathy or thinking of you theme.  Well, bold orange really doesn’t work for that does it?   

Just layering vellum over the design shows how it softens and mutes the boldness of the colouring that’s perfect for the theme of the card I’m creating.  

Here’s the finished card design with the added sentiment and framing. It’s like we’ve gone from shouting to whispering.  

Perfectly peaceful.  

3.  Layering Vellum 

Another neat way to use vellum is to layer it to make a great statement.  Here I’ve used Power Poppy’s Sassy Succulents set and heat embossed three layers of the hen and chicks image.  Then I carefully cut out progressively smaller areas of the image so that I could stack them together and create dimension.  The one thing that’s important to note about vellum is that because of it’s transparent nature, you have to watch how you adhere it.  Whatever you use will often show through. So you can tell that I’ve disguised the pop dots between the layers with some enamel dots.  With vellum you have to be a bit creative on how to adhere it in a way that doesn’t show.  

That dimension is so great, and the transparency of the vellum still shows through some of the green of the cardstock.  

4.  Vellum Accents

Vellum is perfect for those little touches to accent a card.  Here I’ve created a design with two Power Poppy sets, Good Thinking:  Love Notes, and a brand NEW digi releasing today called Follow Your Heart.  I gave this one a bit of a scrappy-collage feel with embossing paste hearts, words and images and then that pretty vellum mini-envelope and heart.  

Vellum accents could be any little elements that add that extra interest.  Think die cut leaves, hearts or flowers etc.  

5.  Vellum Sentiments

Lastly, I have a very Clean and Simple design that demonstrates how vellum is perfect for adding soft sentiments to your designs.  On this Valentiney card I’ve embossed Big Scripts onto vellum and made a sentiment panel.  It serves another purpose because it also softens that section of the designer paper - just like it would a coloured image underneath.  I’ve sewn the vellum on to hold it in place, but also added little bits of adhesive underneath my accents so it won’t be seen.  

One thing that’s very important to note about embossing on vellum is that because it’s such a staticky material, I always use my embossing buddy on the vellum before I emboss.  It prevents the embossing powder from sticking where it shouldn’t.  I consider it a must working with embossing on vellum.  

Oh, there’s just so many ways you could use vellum on your cards!  I’ve only covered a few, but I hope you play with this lovely style of paper and see for yourself how versatile it is!  Thanks for joining me today!  

Christine