Simple Cards

Yes, it is Alison (butterfly) here and yes, you did read that right...  Not only is today's project very simple, it also consists of a pair of cards.  Regulars at Words and Pictures will know that's a very strange double whammy indeed!  Still, it should mean a shorter post than usual!!

I wanted to play with the magnificent giant flower stamps, new from Katy Leitch.  I started by applying Distress Inks to the stamps, graduating the colours roughly from top to bottom.  I used Faded Jeans, Broken China, Iced Spruce and Peeled Paint.

Once it was inked, I gave the stamp a light spritzing of water and stamped onto watercolour cardstock.

I tapped Archival ink onto the little words at the bottom, just to keep those sharp and fresh whatever came next...

With that done, I then borrowed some techniques from one of last year's Tim Holtz tags - the June 2013 tag... I inked around the edges with a blending tool and then used a water brush to draw the ink in towards the image.

And I also put some ink onto the craft mat from Distress Markers in those same colours (except the Iced Spruce - don't have that as a DM as yet), and then let them soak into the nib of the brush.  Then you splatter delicate little ink droplets over your image.

I grabbed a couple of sheets of thick kraft card in A4 and, using the paler side, cut them to size to fit the watercolour panels I'd created.  I used the leftover cardstock to stamp my two sentiments - selected from various Tim Holtz sentiment sets - in Coffee Archival.

Obviously they were chosen partly because the font is similar on each, but also specifically for the shaping of the words - a long tall one, and a wide flat one!

I inked both the sentiment panels and the borders of the card with the Coffee Archival ink pad, just brushing the pad against the card edges.

And inside each card, there's just a little echo of the image on the front.

This time they're stamped in Coffee Archival.

It's nice to get both versions of the stamping - the sharp clarity of the Archival, and the delicate softness of the "watercolour" Distress Ink.

Two cards, and they really hardly took any time at all...  I could get into this simple thing!!

Though it seems the post isn't that much shorter than usual.  I just like having lots of pictures, that's the trouble.

But that really is that for today!  Thanks so much for dropping by.  There's still nearly a week to play in our Colour It Red challenge for June... Hope to see you there.

Ingredients used:
Artistic Stamper stamps: Katy Leitch stamps - Jumbo Bouvardia and Jumbo Flowering Branch
Distress Watercolour Cardstock
Distress Inks - Faded Jeans, Broken China, Iced Spruce, Peeled Paint
Distress Markers - Faded Jeans, Broken China, Peeled Paint
Archival Ink - Coffee
Kraft Card A4 sheet
From my stash: Stampers Anonymous sentiment stamps