After a long day with a teething baby and dreary rain outside, my husband gave me the night off and told me to go to my craft room. I quickly obliged. I’ve been away for a couple of days, but my brain has been active. I watched a couple videos this last weekend of the new Distress Oxide inks that will be coming out, and it made me realize I hadn’t played with my inks in a few weeks. So I picked out a couple colors from my stash and got busy.

I’ve been really wanting to use background stamps. They bring so much detail in a subtle way to cards.  I have a few from My Favorite Things. One in particular I’ve been waiting for the right moment to use is  Roses All Over Background Stamp. I decided to pull that out tonight. I also picked a heavyweight cardstock to use instead of watercolor paper, even though I was going to be using a lot of water. I was curious of the effect it would have. I’m glad I did. I think the end result was surprisingly beautiful. I stamped with Versamark ink and heat embossed using Tonic Fine Detail Glacier White embossing powder. I then started randomly dabbing Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide ink all over the paper in no particular order. When the paper was somewhat covered, I sprayed liberally with water and started drying with my heat gun. While drying, I used a baby wipe to softly pick up pools of water. I did this proces twice. I then switched to Abandoned Coral Oxide ink, and repeated the process. When I was happy with the results, I sprayed a shimmer spritz all over for some fun texture.

My next step was deciding what to do with this paper. I wanted deminsion, so I used double sided adhesive and stuck fun foam to the back of the paper. I used a MFT rectangle die frame to cut to size, then decided to die cut a heart out in the middle. I then pulled out inked paper and embellishments I had made a couple weeks ago (Simon Says Stamp Love set)  that I never used. I adhered everything together and was really happy with the outcome.

Just when I thought I was going to start cleaning up for bed, I got word that a loved one was in a nursing home across the country after breaking her hip. I immediately got her address and sat back down to make her a card. With the supplies I already had out, I pushed myself to reuse th Distress Oxides. I picked another background stamp, Frameworks by My Favorite Things. I embossed and inked just like the first card. I picked out MFT’s All About You stamp and die set and found the perfect sentiment for her. I die cut the word You 3 times from grey cardstock, and did an ombré ink blend with Black Soot Distress Oxide ink to the top layer before adhering. (If I was to do this card again, I would blend with a lighter hand.) I then heat embossed the sentiment. I die cut a red heart from Little B’s heart set, and inked the red cardstock for dimension. I adhered everything together and attached to a grey card base. I picked out a red envelope and decorated the back, knowing it will give her encouragement and a smile.

It’s now sealed, addressed and stamped, ready for tomorrow’s mail. It broke my heart having to make her this card, but she’s a tough lady. She’s going to get through this time quickly.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing my process for these Cards. I will be posting another project soon, so be sure to check back soon, and/or subscribe.

Angleica Conrad