#TGIFC594 — Sketch Challenge with Shimmering Scenes

Welcome to a new TGIF Challenge! This week, we’re using the sketch below. It’s a classic layout that works well with lots of products. I decided to use the sketch to kick start making a birthday card for my husband. He loves the mountains. If fact, we just got home from an epic driving trip through Colorado after our daughter’s wedding. Thinking of that trip, I chose the Shimmering Scenes Hot Foil Bundle for his card.

The scene in the center of the card needed to be fairly small, so I extended the meadow of wildflowers out to the sides. Those two trimmed down meadow pieces on the sides include silver hot foiled flowers. I go back and forth trying to decide whether it’s better to hot foil before or after stamping. (I’m still learning.) For this project, I hot foiled afterwards and that method worked well. I also discovered that I got better results with the flower meadow stamp when I inked it up upside down and then pressed the cardstock into the stamp. To stamp the image, I used two colors by inking up the stamp with Old Olive ink on the top and Granny Apple Green ink on the bottom and then using a Sponge Dauber to soften the transition.

In the center, I stamped the mountains with Cloud Cover and Smoky Slate ink, the trees with Pretty Peacock and Secret Sea ink and the meadow with Old Olive ink. To apply two colors of ink to the stamps, I inked up the entire stamp with the lighter color and then used a Sponge Dauber to add shading with the darker color. For the sky, I watercolored with Balmy Blue ink.

After stamping the trees, I wasn’t very satisfied. The card looked a little bland. So, I decided to play around with a Blender Pen to see if I could add more defined color. I tried dipping the Blender Pen in my Secret Sea ink pad and then using it to add shadows by drawing small dots. It was easy and fun and I totally love the results!

Next, I die-cut some trees from Secret Sea and Pretty Peacock Two-Tone Cardstock using the new Winter Adventures Dies. Afterwards, I added some shading with Secret Sea ink and a Blending Brush.

On the inside of the card, I have some hot foiled greetings in silver using the Sweetly Sentimental and Classic Greetings Hot Foil Dies. I also tried out the Reverse Hot Foil Die for the first time! Use this plate to hot foil your leftover foils. That’s how I created the”My Heart is With You” sentiment on the bottom.

Tips: When reverse foiling, try using Smooth Foiling 5″ x 7″ Specialty Paper for best results in transferring all of the foil. Also, the Winter Adventures Dies include some impressions dies such as the oval frame below. Those dies work best when you give the cardstock a little spritz before die-cutting like normal. Then afterwards, run the die and cardstock through the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine a second time facing upward with the cardstock in place and layered with an Impression Plate. The results are quite dramatic!

Be sure to check out the TGIF Challenges Blog to see what the other designers’ created with this week’s challenge and then create one of your own. You can enter the challenge by using the Linky Tool at the bottom of that blog page.

Have a wonderful day!

Purchase products from my online store to qualify to receive free exclusive project tutorials. This month’s PDF includes 11 fantastic tutorials designed by my demonstrator friends and I to inspire your paper crafting! The projects feature products from the September-December 2026 Catalog and current Online Exclusives. Enjoy!