Floating Reinker and Watercolored Rose Wonder

For my daughter's birthday, I chose to work with a rose theme since she loves roses. Because of this, I chose to use the Rose Wonder stamp set and the Rose Garden Thinlits.

I started by stamping the rose image on Shimmery White card stock using Versamark. I also stamped the leaves, but did them separately because I knew I would be cutting them out separate from the rose. I heat embossed the images using White Stampin' Emboss Powder.

The Floating Reinker Technique seemed to be a nice fit for this card so I got out my Aqua Pen and added water to all the spaces in the rose, making sure that they weren't too wet or too dry but just right :) I then picked up Blushing Bride reinker on my Aqua Pen and touched it to the water in various spots on the rose. This caused the ink to fill the sections with color. After cleaning my pen, I repeated this process using Rose Red to fill the remaining sections.

In working with the leaves, I also used my Aqua Pen but this time I chose to paint with the Cucumber Crush reinker. Because of the nature of the paper, the ink dried quickly so I was able to paint over sections to intensify the color in places, making the leaves look more realistic. I zapped both the leaves and the rose with my heat tool to be sure they were completely dry before continuing.

My next step was to use the Rose Garden Thinlits to cut out the rose and leaves using the now retired 6 x 6" Glimmer paper in Sweet Sugarplum and Mint Macaron. I used Connie Stewart's method of adhering detailed die cuts to glue the die cuts to the rose and leaves. After I was sure they were well adhered, I fussy cut around them, snipping off any extra pieces that were not needed.

Two mattes were die cut, one Mint Macaron and one Blushing Bride. I used the Hexagons Dynamic Embossing Folder to emboss the Blushing Bride matte and then adhered it to the Mint Macaron one using liquid adhesive.

After determining the correct placement, I used Dimensionals for the leaves and Foam Adhesive Strips for the rose and adhered them to the embossed matte. I wrapped Thick Cucumber Crush Baker's Twine around the bottom of the matte, securing it to the back with Fast Fuse. The matte was then adhered to a Rose Red card front using Foam Adhesive Strips.

Using the MISTI, the sentiment from the Rose Wonder stamp set was stamped in Cucumber Crush on Mint Macaron and then stamped again with Versamark so that it could be heat embossed using Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder. An oval from the Stitched Shapes Framelits was used to die cut the sentiment. It was adhered to the card front using Foam Adhesive Strips.

A Thick Whisper White matte was cut for inside the card. The Rose Wonder stamp was used to stamp offset on the right side of the matte using Versamark. It was heat embossed using White Stampin' Emboss Powder. Blushing Bride and Mint Macaron inks were sponged over the embossing and then the matte was adhered inside to complete the card.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out and my daughter loved it! If you would like to use the color scheme from this project, feel free to save the following image.

I am definitely going to miss Cucumber Crush! I love its vibrancy and find that it works well, in small doses, with several of our Stampin' Up! colors. If you love it too, be sure to stock up on it before it's too late! Place an order today in my online store.

Vellum Overlay For Stamp, Ink, Paper

It was opportune that Jennifer McGuire's post showed up in my Inbox this morning. Her video depicting how she created several stunning cards using a vellum overlay technique really grabbed my attention! I decided to attempt the technique for the color challenge over at Stamp, Ink and Paper.

I really like these colors–at least two of them! I think that Bermuda Bay really looks stunning with the Night of Navy. Soft Sky is not my favorite because it is so pale but I was able to include it on my card by using a ribbon.

I decided to use the Rose Wonder stamp set for this technique because I knew that it would look wonderful on the vellum, but for the inner card, I decided to use the Floating Reinker Technique.

I chose a piece of very light watercolor paper (non-Stampin Up) and cut it to a standard card size. The rose image was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with White Stampin' Emboss Powder.

Instead of spraying the image with water as is done in most of the tutorials (they were using Shimmery White paper) I decided to add water with a paintbrush. That way, if I needed to re-wet any sections of the image, I could do so easily.

After wetting the image, I used my Aqua Painter to pick up a little bit of Night of Navy and dabbed it into the various sections of the rose. As soon as the ink touched the water on the rose, it "floated" into the embossed section it had been added to; it didn't float evenly, though, so a nice mottled effect was the result. I repeated this procedure for each section of the rose and then switched to Bermuda Bay reinker for the leaves.

I set the painted image aside to dry, and worked on other things for awhile. Then, I touched up the image with my heat tool to be sure it was totally dry. The paper had warped slightly so I touched it up by ironing it, between scrap paper and covered with an old pillowslip, using a low temperature.

Next, after determining the size of vellum for my outer card, I cut, scored, and folded it. I placed the inner card into place and set it into my MISTI. There I placed the rose stamp over the vellum, lining it up with the image showing through from beneath. I stamped it in Versamark and heat embossed it with White Stampin' Emboss powder.

While I had my MISTI out, I also stamped the sentiment from the Picture Perfect stamp set using Jet Black Stazon ink. I let it dry and then made sure it was using the heat tool. I then colored in the sections using the Wink of Stella pen.

Once that was completely dry, I put the painted card on the inside and attached the two with a length of Soft Sky Seam Binding. The final touch was to add a few rhinestones to the front of the card.

What do you think? Drop me a comment below–I'd love to hear from you!