Why hello there! I had no idea I'd be away for so long. The big news is that Kiran is married, and her special day was absolutely wonderful. The sunshine was bright and warm, the guests were excited and happy, and love was evident. All those little details that Kiran and G had been working on for so long came together to create a beautiful setting for the celebrating, and celebrate we did! (Kiran promises to share some of those details here soon) Add in a little travel and some visiting family for me, and you can see where our blogging silence originates!
But we're back, and I'm very excited to share some brand new things with you, since I received my first order from the new IBC, as well as some preorder items from the Holiday Mini. So exciting! And to make up for our long absence, today's post is a double header, with two ways you could make the same card. I love it!
At the top of this post, you see a clean and simple card that features the new background stamp Sweet Floral.
TIP: For even inking on a background stamp, use your brayer! I brayered this stamp with Concord Crush, and stamped it onto Wisteria Wonder, which I'm pretty sure is my new go-to shade of purple. I love it! Once I had my main attraction ready, I used my Color Coach for this great set of colors: Wisteria Wonder, Cherry Cobbler, and Pink Pirouette. The sentiment, a great quote from Emerson, is from the new stamp set, Pursuit of Happiness, and it's one that I plan to use often.
Version two of this card is a little rougher around the edges, since I wanted more texture. I used my brayer to ink my favorite background stamp, En Francais, in Wisteria Wonder and layered that over the Simple Floral. Then I tore away an edge, to do a little reveal of the sentiment below. The texture of the Cherry Cobbler layer is an old but favorite technique of mine, crumpling the paper into a ball, and then smoothing it out again. With all our great embossing folders, I'd almost forgotten this quick and easy way to add some dimension! I sponged the crumpled paper with Concord Crush, to "age" it a big, and then used Thank You Kindly for the sentiment. To complete the rougher look, I strayed from a geometric placement of layers, and I just love the result.
Which card do you prefer?
Cheers!
~Melanie
Stamps: Sweet Floral, Pursuit of Happiness, En Francais, Thank You Kindly
Ink: Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder
Paper: Wisteria Wonder, Cherry Cobbler, Pink Pirouette
