Hello fellow paper lovers! Today I made this card for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. The theme was to make your own background, preferrably using PinkFresh Studio products. Since I only have one PinkFresh stamp so far, the choice was pretty clear!

My idea was to loosely color the flowers on this Folk Garden stamp with sprays. I started with TH watercolor paper on the smooth side, and stamped the Folk Garden stamp using my Misti with VersaMark embossing ink. Unfortunately it seems like it wasn’t completely ink free from the last time I used it, and it didn’t stamp clear. There was a bit of a slight gray, because I had previously used an archival black on it I think. So, instead of embossing with clear, like I planned, I embossed with an opaque white powder that I had in my stash. It came out okay, but definitely on the grungy side, so the idea for the rest of the card shifted a little.

I still used sprays, but just colored the flowers in the vicinity of where they were stamped. First I misted the watercolor cardstock, then used picked raspberry oxiede and seedless preserves spray stain. Why did I use both an oxide and a spray stain? Because that’s what I had in the colors I wanted! I heat set them a little with my heat tool, then added shabby shutters oxide spray, and that’s where the magic began! I love how that color is one of those that separates out a little. There’s some blue green, and yellow. Really fabulous! Another spritz of water, and then moved the paper around a little to get it to blend a little, but avoiding making mud with the help of a paper towel mopping up spots that started to get less then pretty. Then I heatset the whole background. I added a little text for interest here and there, using frayed burlap distress ink, and the script text from my Tim Holtz Entomology set, CMS328. I like small size of that script font. To finish it up, I added splatters of white gouache and seedless preserves with my fan brush, drying between colors.

I was really happy with the way the background came out. I didn’t want to detract too much from it, so I thought just a nice, small, thin sentiment would be great. Yana’s Layered Script Sentiments from Spellbinders came to mind. I quickly colored and dried a piece of watercolor paper, using seedless preserves spray stain. I die cut the word “Thanks”, and three shadows in white heavystock cardstock (to layer for some depth). I didn’t take any in-process photos, because this was just a “fun for me thing”! I hope my directions are clear enough for you to follow along! I added three gold confetti sequins, and called it done! Thanks for stopping by!