Faux Frame Challenge

Happy Saturday and happy March!  I hope you have some stamping planned this weekend!  We have a fun new challenge over at The Technique Twist for you to play along with.  We're all about the Faux Frames this week!  Now, do a quick online search and you'll find TONS of variations on this technique.  That is our challenge...find a new way to create a faux frame.  Here is my take on it:

Birthday card featuring the Faux Frame technique with the Summer Silhouettes, Secret Garden, Papillon Potpourri and Sweet Essentials stamp sets.

For my faux frame I used Simply Pressed Clay in my Woodgrain TIEF!  I went for a faded driftwood kinda look.  I love the effect and am so going to try it with other patterns.  Here is how I created my frame:

• Press Simply Pressed Clay onto the open Woodgrain TIEF, making sure it is fairly thick...too thin and it will tear when you run it through the Big Shot.
• Close the folder and run it through the Big Shot with no tabs on the multipurpose platform.
• Set the folder, with clay inside, aside to dry for at least 24 hours.
• Carefully remove the dried clay from the folder, taking care not to tear the clay.  (Don't worry if it does tear...mine did (several times) and I just put it back together when I glued the frame to my project.
• Using the Squares Collection Framelits, die cut a square frame from the embossed clay.  You can play with the width of the frame by trying different sizes of framelits until you're happy with the look of it.
• Sponge the entire frame with Smokey Slate ink, following the grain of the "wood".  Be sure to get into the grooves to eliminate any white clay showing through.  Be sure to also sponge the inside and outside edges so they are no longer white.
• Sponge the entire frame again with Basic Gray ink, but this time go against the grain to highlight the texture.
• Sponge lightly one more time, against the grain, with Basic Black ink to add more depth and texture.

Once I had my frame made the rest of the card was a piece of cake.  I stamped the floral images from the Summer Silhouettes set on a 3-1/4" square piece of card stock using Basic Gray, Island Indigo and Pool Party inks.  To glue the frame to the card stock I used Sticky Strip.  Tombow will also work with Simply Pressed Clay but I didn't want to wait for the liquid glue to dry ;)
The leaves on the frame are from the Secret Garden stamp set, are heat embossed in silver and are die cut with the coordinaring Framelits.  I glued them to the frame using Tombow.  The little butterfly is stamped in Basic Gray ink on vellum and punched with the Bitty Butterfly punch.  It is also adhered with Tombow.
The background is a piece of Pool Party card stock that I embossed using the Pretty Print TIEF...sure hope that one comes back in the new Annual Catty!  I left a smooth strip at the bottom so that I could stamp the sentiment from Sweet Essentials in Basic Gray.

Inside view with sentiment from Simply Sketched.

On the inside I stamped the same floral images I used on the front and added the sentiment from the Simply Sketched hostess set.

I hope you'll make time this weekend to try creating a faux frame.  There are SO many possibilities!  Check out the projects by my fellow design team members over at The Technique Twist and then give it a go.  We'd love to see what you create!