My father in law supports Brentford football team – the Brentford Bees.  This means that for the last few years I have endeavoured to make him a bee-themed birthday card.  I had given up for this year – I thought I had exhausted every possibility – then I saw a beautiful technique in Craft Stamper magazine that got me thinking…

Here is my version:

The bee is stamped onto acetate with Stazon ink, and then I used acrylic paint to colour the bee’s body and wings.  Once this was dry, I stamped the entire square of acetate with Encore gold pigment ink and then dusted it with gold Perfect Pearls.

The next part was the most difficult – attaching a sheet of double sided adhesive to the acetate in order to stick it to the card.  I have no advice on the best method to do this, I am still trying to figure it out!

You can’t see so well in the photo but the shine on the card is beautiful and the bee really stands out.  I think this works best on a dark card base to really show off the shine.

Now I just have to come up with another idea for next year…