Severnista

A new year means a new round of birthday cards for family and friends. The following designs are inspired by the very lovely Sparkle 3-D Texture Fades ^TM Embossing Folder by Tim Holtz (TH) for Sizzix. I recently watched a card making video where Nina Trapani (for Simon Says Stamp) crafted Christmas cards for the 2025 season and in one of the cards she used this embossing folder.

The minute I saw it I knew it had potential for many holiday and celebratory backgrounds. With crafting it’s always worth it to choose a product that you can use for diverse themes and styles. This way your dollars spent can travel extra miles.

In all of these cards I have paired Sparkle with cake. The two layer cake die cut I’m using is Fancy Cake Set from Simon Says Stamp. I like this particular cake theme die cut because its form is simple yet it has several extra elements that you can play with to add depth and character like the birthday candles and cake stand. The size of the cake sits perfectly for the focus of an A2 card.

At a good price ($20), the Fancy Cake Set offers excellent versatility for a wide range of designs and styles. Pairing it with Sparkles inspired this crafting session that was inspired by so many other card crafters out there.

I dry embossed Sparkles with my Anna Griffin Elite Empress Machine. Because it is a thick embossing folder I used it with only one A Plate through the machine. I embossed on colored card stock and white. I inked the embossed image with Archive Brilliance Moonlight White for highlights by gently dragging the ink pad across the raised embossing and also gently tapping the pad. I also went over the larger embossed ‘beads’ with a Jelly Roll white gel pen for extra pop.

I used Catherine Pooler’s Bordering Sweet Border Dies: Celebrate Friends Collection Decorative Edge in both white and Concord & 9th’s (C9) Briar Rose cardstock to decorate the cakes. I stamped a script on the base of the cake in one card with Archival Ink Jet Black. I also used the same stamp for a complementary layer on the edge of the card in Briar Rose.

For extra embellishment I used some already cut floral dies and embossed flowers from various sets that I had in my ‘Extras’ tray. These are elements that I’ve cut, stamped, embossed or whatever, that I just haven’t used yet. I like how the cake looks with these delicate little flowers from an Ellen Hutson set. I also used colored gel pens to add texture and color to my dainty little candles. For the cake base on one card I die cut it in clear vellum as it reminded me of a crystal or glass cake stand. Another element I used on each card is an item new to me called Spellbinders Splatter Effects in Sparkle.

Sparkle Splatter Effects is a translucent and shimmery light weight medium that comes in a nail polish bottle with its own applicator brush that makes painting over card stock super simple. I used it on the dark green Rainforest (C9) cardstock layer of the cake below (hard to see in photo). I also lightly splattered it across all finished cards for added effect.

The ‘Celebrate’ card above has a card base in C9’s Eucalyptus. I love this soft color. To soften even more I inked the base and edges with Lost Shadow Distress Ink. I then distressed the edges using the Tim Holtz Tonic Paper Distresser And Thread Cutter. Make sure to re-ink your edges after distressing. ‘Celebrate’ was cut in a pearl shimmer paper on my Cricut Explore Air2. You can also use a steel die or stamp the word instead on cardstock before affixing to card.

Here ‘Celebrate’ is stamped and then die cut using a stitched edge banner strip from Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips die set. My card base color is C9’s Wildberry, a deep berry that is analogous to their Briar Rose shade. I also cut a scalloped circle in clear vellum for an added layer below the cake. The entire base is cut using Simon Says Stamp’s A2 Scalloped Rectangles.

I can’t seem to get away from the Pink and Black motif. These two colors work so well together. In the card above I used black ink stamping with both the script and the striped edge. The latter is stamped using Essentials by Ellen Skinny Stripes by Heather. The small berries are cut in metallic silver cardstock. The flowers from Ellen Hutson’s Mondo Citrus Set were white embossed and lightly water colored with a pink shade of Distress Ink from Tim Holtz.

Later I added a stamped birthday sentiment strip from Pretty Pink Posh Sentiments Strips Birthday and affixed to card with a piece of Scor Pal’s 1/4″ double-sided adhesive. If I were to do over I would double up the cardstock behind the sentiment strip then attach, especially because of the bumpy embossing. The Scor Pal tape holds extremely well so be ready to commit to placement.

I’m happy to have added Sparkles 3-D Embossing Folder to my crafting kit. Embossing texture, patterns and even scenes (subtle, like this one, or elaborate) to paper allows for another fantastic element when building a card design. Embossing folders usually run between $8- $15 each and with such a big selection of themes out there it isn’t hard to find something that will offer the versatility you’re looking for – think stars, snowflakes, botanicals; full backgrounds, partial scenes or focused images that come with stencils.

A word about Embossing

What you will need to emboss your own paper is an embossing machine either manual or electric. I’ve been very happy with the Anna Griffin Empress Elite but I started with a manual machine which is what I suggest if you’re new to crafting or have certain mobility issues that make turning a crank repeatedly difficult.

Here are some brands to check out: Sizzix, Gina K’s Intri-Cut Die Cutting Machine, Spellbinders and Gemini from Crafter’s Companion. They are an investment so shop the sales! These machines are long lived and only the plates should need care or replacement.