varadasharma
- Sep 28, 2015
- 4 min read

Two cards – two techniques – ink blending with a stencil & ink squishing

Hi friends, today I have two cards for you. I created both at the same time with some common elements. On each one I used a slightly different technique on the background / border.

Card 1

I started with a top folding card created using a blue cardstock that I had on hand. I think this one from Bazzill comes quite close to it. You’d also need an ink that matches the cardstock somewhat. This ink would work great. I used one from Studio G, but I am not able to locate that one anymore.
I taped the card itself to my work surface to avoid shifting. On top of it, I laid the chevron stencil from Simon Says Stamp and secured that with additional tape. Then I used a sponge to blend blue ink on top of it. I did not go all over the card, but stayed mainly in the middle area. This (almost) tone on tone effect creates a feeling of dimension to an otherwise flat card base, without any bulk.
I also wanted to repeat the tone-on-tone in another area of the card. So I stamped the leafy image from “My Friend” set using the same blue ink on another scrap of same paper. I wanted to heat emboss this with clear ink, so first I inked my stamp with Versa Mark and then with the actual colored ink. I was using my new sweetheart – my MISTI tool. So I decided to take advantage of it – on one image I stamped once, on another I double stamped it. As the paper and the stamp do not move inside this tool you can stamp over and over on the same image and get perfectly aligned impression every time. I don’t know what I did before I got my MISTI. :-) I heat embossed the images using clear embossing powder and then used dies from the same “My Friend” set to die cut out the two leafy images.
I used the “thinking of you” sentiment stamp from the Sizzix stamps and die set and Martha Stewart antique gold embossing powder to heat emboss it. I used the hexagon die from “My friend” set as a guide and fussy cut the sentiment on a hexagon.
Finally I assembled the card together using one of the acetate cards from SSS September 2015 card kit, a few cup sequins in gold, a couple matching seed beads in blue and a sequin butterfly. I used the accessories on the top to secretly hide some glossy accents adhesive behind the transparent acetate card ;-) sshhh… don’t tell anyone, ok?

Card 2

For this second card, I added three fall themed distress colors (Cracked Pistachio, Abandoned Coral, Fossilized Amber) to a glass surface. I went from Fossilized Amber to green (Cracked Pistachio + added some SSS Green Apple to it) to Abandoned Coral. I gently misted the glass surface and used my paint brush to move those colors where I wanted them to be.
Next I took a watercolor paper to this glass surface and pressed it on gently so that my watercolor paper picked up all the beautiful colors. I used the heat gun to speed up the drying process. To keep the paper form warping, I moved the heat gun to the front as well as to the back of the paper and did not let the heat concentrate on any area for a long time.
On one side of this watercolor paper, I stamped and double stamped the leafy image from “My Friend” set using Green Apple ink from SSS. Since there was already a lot of color on this piece of paper, I did not do any heat embossing. From the middle of the same paper, I die cut a frame that could go around my acetate card. I used SSS stitched rectangles die to make this frame, but I had no inside rectangle that could exactly fit the width of my acetate card. So I did partial die cutting with this one.
First I taped outer rectangle to the watercolor card. I positioned the acetate card in the middle of it and lightly traced its corners with a pencil.
Then I taped my inside rectangle to align itself to left side of the pencil marks and die cut more than half way through, but not all the way through. This way I had cut the left side completely but the right side was still not cut out.
Next I un-taped and moved the inside rectangle die to match the pencil marks on right side, turned the paper around and die cut up to half way from that side.
Finally I added a couple white sequins (to match the white lettering on the acetate card as well as my white card base), a few seed beads, the die cut leafy images and a green sequin butterfly. Since there were a lot of words on the acetate cards itself, I did not add any more sentiment.

That’s it folks. Hope you like these card ideas and feel inspired to try them out yourself!

Supplies

You can find links to the supplies I’ve used below – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support!