Don’t Lose the Spark Card

I really felt the need to be artsy today! I had been playing with the background flower stamp from Unity’s January 2015 SMAK kit when I decided to try watercolor painting it to coordinate with a paper from a new Prima paper pad. I first stamped using a hunter green and then blue archival ink and proceeded to paint it using oranges, reds, and aquas. I cut the paper down and ended up toning it down using a light wash of Aged Mahogany distress oxide ink. I picked out a red background from the pad for the card base and die cut the flower patterned paper using a tag die. I decided to keep the top of the patterned paper and knew I could cover up the hole at the top of the pad with the background paper. I also used some of the paper scraps to make a strip at the top.

Once done, I then started thinking of what stamp I could use as a focal point with these these papers and my eye landed on the frame and sentiment from the November 2017 SMAK kit. I stamped that using the same blue and green archival inks and and added an orange on the flowers, and finally embossed it using clear embossing powder. I painted the frame and then stamped and embossed the sentiment from the same kit using plum archival ink, and fussy cut it out.

I then turned to my ephemera collection to see what I could use to balance the card out. I found a pale teal feather and teapot that I added color to to blend in with the other pieces. I also found the word treasure and a background for it that I added to the tag. Again, I added some darker color to this piece.

At this point, I still felt creative (or slightly whacked) and felt the need to turn the frame into a mirror and pulled out the girl from the March 2018 SMAK kit and the chandelier from the June 2017 SMAK kit. I practiced lightly stamping using Aged Mahogany, and finally, took courage into my hands and stamped the images onto the completed frame. I lightly took a brush full of water and smudged down the images. I dried the frame, decided I would keep it and took a brown Sharpie and added a little detail and a white Posca pen to add light touches.

I finally put the card together adding peach lace, a teal flower and cream fancy string. So, this happy mess is what happens, I guess, when I get in a mood to play. I had a lot of fun matching colors, designs and papers and playing at creating a mirror. Next time I will practice this in advance to improve my novice technique here. Interested as always in feedback! Take care and explore your inner creative urges... it’s always a surprise to see what happens!