More than All the Stars

The current challenge at the Hero Arts blog is to do a one-layer card. For me, this is QUITE a challenge, because I'm a girl who does love her layers! But I decided to go for it anyway, so....

I based the design for my card on May Flaum's sketch from Week #3 of this year's Camp Scrap. She calls it "the strip," because it's just a strip of something across the width or height of a project. In this case, I decided to use the strip to house my greeting. But rather than put something down, since this IS supposed to be a one-layer card, I masked off a strip on the card front. I first used painter's tape, but ended up ripping my card when I pulled the tape off, so I switched to sticky notes for my masking.

To create the starry background, I used a portion of the Tim Holtz "Stars" layering stencil. Since it wasn't wide enough to cover the card front, I had to get creative. I first lined up the top portion, with the smaller stars, on the left edge of the card. Then I smooshed my Versamark ink pad through the stencil, and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. When the powder cooled, I lined up the stars on the left side of the stencil with the stars on the right side of where I'd embossed, and repeated with the Versamark and clear embossing powder for the remaining stars. Finally, I did this same process on the bottom, below the greeting strip.

After the stars were all embossed, I took Distress inks in Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, and Stormy Sky, and blended them (in that order) from the top to the bottom of my card, still keeping the greeting strip masked off so it would remain white. Because of the clear embossing I'd done with the stencil, the stars resisted the ink.

Finally, for the greeting, I used one of the stamps from this set by Hero Arts. I stamped it in Versafine Onyx Black ink, then clear heat-embossed that as well.

I've discovered that one-layer cards, even though they can look simple, take more planning than layered cards. But I think I succeeded with this card. Hopefully an overseas hero will love it enough to write home to his/her significant other!

I'm also entering this in a2z Scrapbooking's "Anything Goes" July Linky Party challenge.