Clean & Simple Style

Today I wanted to play over at the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge.  I already did on Saturday, but my card was not as Clean & Simple as it probably should have been so I decided to give it another go this morning.  Fair is fair after all.

I don't know if I've ever made a true one layer card in my life so this is as close as I ever get. I'm also trying to go through my stamp sets and use them in new ways. There was something I liked about them in the first place or I wouldn't have purchased them.  I'm ecstatic about the current Photopolymer Stamps that are out as I can store so many more than I can in wood mounted or even cling mounted stamps.  But I have several wood mounted sets in my supplies that have been sadly neglected.  It was one of those that I dug out this morning.

This is actually a multi-layering set where you are supposed to stamp each layer in a deeper color but the brushstroke style of this set is what I used as my watercolor "brush" this morning.  It's really hard to stamp multiple layers when they are wood mounted stamps but I do love this set called "Roses in Winter" from Stampin' Up in 2003.

As much as I would like to, I just can't seem to freehand watercolor yet, so I have to find ways to create watercolor looks that work for me.  I was surprised at how easy it was to do this using just a single layer of the images.  White space is really important in this style and I think it worked perfectly.

I started with a 4.25 x 5.5 inch piece of Arches Hot Pressed #140 Watercolor Paper.  Hot pressed paper has a really smooth surface while cold pressed has more texture.  I like the smoothness and since I was trying to make this look more like a background paper, it was the look I was going for.  I'm not always that lucky.  I wasn't sure if I would add water or not so I wanted to make sure I was using paper that could hold up to the water without pilling. I did actually try use the stamps with water and a water brush but I didn't like the results so they went into File 13.  *Ü*

Both of these cards are straight up stamping.  For one card I used a combination of Mowed Lawn Distress Ink and Vintage Jadeite from Papertrey Ink for the leaves and stems and the other I used just the Vintage Jadeite.  For the Roses I used Worn Lipstick Distress Ink. I think Worn Lipstick is my 2nd favorite of the Distress Inks after Seedless Preserves. The butterflies were stamped in Lavender Moon and Hawaiian Shores Ink from Papertrey Ink.  The piece with the lavender butterfly was attached directly to a Berry Sorbet Top Folding Notecard and the other was matted with the Berry Sorbet and then mounted on an Ivory Top Folding Notecard.  The Arches Watercolor Paper is definitely not as white as some of the other papers I use so it would have been very noticeable if I had used white card bases.

Both greetings came from Graceful Greetings by Papertrey Ink and were stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  It's important to note that the #140 watercolor paper holds water much longer than the Bristol I usually use.  Be sure to let the paper dry before attempting to heat emboss it.  I had a bit of a mess on one of my panels and I had to wipe the Versamark off and start again.  Regular Cardstock would not be so forgiving of this process but I was okay to wipe it off with a baby wipe since it was watercolor paper.


For the last touch I used Versamark Pen with a stencil that has some dots as part of the pattern and heat embossed them so I could also enter them in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge theme of "Let's Do The Polka".  Both Stitched Rectangle Panels were spritzed with Tsukineko Sheer Shimmer Spritz and allowed to dry before assembling the cards.



I like how these turned out for a Clean & Simple Card Challenge  and the Curtain Call Keep It Simple Challenge, proving that you don't always have to use a gazillion layers to have a nice card.

Have a great day and come back soon to see my next project.