Cherry Blossom Thank You

I've been in a massive creative rut for weeks on end lately. In an attempt to jolt myself out of it I treated myself to a little Pretty Pink Posh haul. I absolutely love Pretty Pink Posh because they're local (Seattle area - GO HAWKS!) and their fresh, floral, pretty style strikes a chord with me. I'm happy to report that it worked! I made something for the first time in weeks! I needed a thank you card tomorrow, and even though I had some in my stash I was eager to try my new products (who wouldn't be?). I ended up using their Cherry Blossoms stamp and die set, along with their Everyday Greetings stamp set. My little haul included their Classic Jewel Bundle, so of course I had to finish it with some sparkle! Read on to see how Inez Got Her Grove Back! 😉

I started by stamping one of each image in the set. I used my Misti stamping tool and stamped  on Bristol paper with black Versafine ink, which I used because I intended to watercolor the images. If you're going to use any water on your stamped images, you need a waterproof ink foremost. Versafine is my favorite. You also need to stamp on something like watercolor paper or Bristol paper that is intended to soak up and hold water, otherwise everything will bleed and the paper will loose its integrity. I used Bristol instead of watercolor paper because I wanted a smooth surface. 

My intent was to layer the flowers over a cute patterned paper, so I found a piece in my stash that had a bright, happy color palette and chose my colors for the stamped images based on that paper. Spoiler alert: I didn't end up using the patterned paper in the finished product, but I'm thankful it provided me a color palette! 😁I used my Tombow Dual Tip markers to watercolor this time. I use various techniques with them, but for this card I scribbled the markers onto a large acrylic block to act as a palette, and picked them up with my Pentel Aquash water brushes. That's my tried and true, quick, easy, low-mess, no-fuss watercolor method!

Next, I used the coordinating dies to cut out all the images in my Sizzix Big Shot. I knew I wanted the flowers all layered around the top of a bottom-folding card, so I spent a while arranging them into something that pleased me. It was at this point that I realized the patterned paper was really just taking away from the pretty, soft flowers, so I decided not to use it and to instead glue the flowers directly onto a white card base. I used Ranger Multi Medium Matte with a Darice Needle Tip Applicator top. Multi Medium Matte is a great adhesive because it's super strong and dries quickly. The needle tip applicator allowed me to get under all the little leaves and petals I was layering. 

I completed the card by combining two sentiments from Everyday Greetings. I stamped them with Versamark watermarking ink, then heat embossed them with Ranger Super Fine black embossing powder. Despite using an anti-static tool, I always get messy embossing! Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom for flawless embossing? Let me know in the comments! After embossing the sentiments, I added a bit of sparkle to the center of each flower and leaf with my Zig Wink of Stella glitter pen. Finally, I filled the blank space with Pretty Pink Posh Pearl White Jewels to give it a final boost of oomph!  

And that's it for the card that broke the rut! Phew! I can feel the creative juices starting to flow back through my brain. 😁Thank you so much for stopping by and reading! If you have any questions or comments don't hesitate!