Hello! It’s Friday, so that means a new TGIF Challenge! This week, our focus is on a type of card we all need — sympathy cards. I don’t know about you, but I tend to make lots of happy occasion cards and forget about the ones like this that come up suddenly. I seriously NEED to get better at creating an inventory to stash away for a rainy day.)
Be sure to click over to the TGIF Challenges Blog to see all the designers’ projects this week. At that site, you can enter your own design for a chance to win!
For my card, I used the AMAZING new Good Morning Magnolia stamp set. This stamp set is seriously gorgeous, and there are so many different ways to use it. What’s even better is that it has coordinating Magnolia Memories Dies, which you can purchase in a bundle with the stamps for 10% off.
I decided to create soft-looking flowers with a “no-line” stamping technique. I stamped off the flowers two times with Crumb Cake ink before stamping them on Shimmery White Cardstock. Then, I watercolored the petals with Petal Pink and Blackberry Bliss ink.
Tips for watercoloring:
- Gather ink by squeezing your ink pad to pool ink in the lid, or pressing an acrylic block into the pad.
- Have a few paper towels handy to clean your Aqua Painter and help manage the amount of water in the brush. (Clean the Aqua Painter by squeezing the barrel until the water runs clear, and manage the amount of water by squeezing a towel around the brush to remove excess water and color.)
- Add a little bit of water to the ink to dilute.
- Start by going over each section with a thin coat of clear water, and color in small sections.
- Dip the Aqua Painter brush in the ink and start painting in the darkest areas first, where there are the most shadows, fading out.
- If too much color is on the brush, use a paper towel to absorb some of the color.
- Start light and add color gradually.
- For dramatic dark spots, add more ink before the section dries.
If you look closely, you’ll notice that my flowers are pieced together. I used scissors to trim off my “no-line” stamped flowers and adhered them to leaves that I stamped with Mossy Meadow ink. I wanted the leaves to be dark and show the pretty stamped veins.
Underneath my flowers is a banner that I created out of Blackberry Bliss Cardstock using the beautiful border die from the Magnolia Memory Dies. Then, I added a sentiment embossed on a matching Stitched Shape circle die.
The background paper is from the beautiful Perennial Essence Designer Series Paper. I used different sheets of that paper pack to cut out the detailed flower and leaf dies. Then, I used a sheet of pink vellum from the coordinating Perennial Essence 12 x 12 Vellum to cut out two small flower center dies.
Lastly, I layered some of the exquisite Petal Pink 5/8″ Organdy Striped Ribbon underneath the layers. So, so pretty!!!
Hope you were inspired by my sympathy card. Be sure to check out the others at TGIF Challenges.
Have a wonderful and creative day!
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Supplies used on my card:
Your card is absolutely stunning!
Thank you so much Karen! ❤