Can't Wait to Hug You

I've been participating in Online Card Classes' "Clean & Simple 4" class during this past week. The emphasis has been on techniques, and applying ones like die cutting, inking, and heat embossing to CAS cards. Even though the "live" class ends February 6, you can always enroll in it as a self-paced class. I would highly recommend it!

The theme for Day 3 of class was inked backgrounds. I took my inspiration from a lesson by Jennifer McGuire on "layered inking." She used dye inks & Versamark to create her card. The dye inks that this technique works with are mostly Simon Says Stamp, WPlus9, and Hero Arts. Since I don't exactly have a plethora of any of those (OK, just a few Hero Arts inks), I wasn't able to use the Versamark for my card. But she suggested it could also be done with Distress inks (of which I have plenty) and water. So that's what I did.

I cut a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper to 4.25x5.5", and stamped the owls from Hero Arts' "Lil Hoot" set on that, using Ranger Archival Ink in the color Watering Can. I also stamped the image onto a sticky note, and fussy cut that to use as a mask for when I did my inked background.

For the background, I chose Distress inks in Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick, Seedless Preserves, Chipped Sapphire, and Black Soot. Starting with the Mustard Seed at the bottom of my watercolor panel, I blended the different colors, working my way up the paper and ending with the Chipped Sapphire & just a touch of Black soot at the very top. My aim was a twilight/sunset sky.

I die cut cloud shapes from a piece of acetate that I'd cut to 4.25x5.5", using 3 dies from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' "Clouds & Raindrops" set. I then placed that over my background panel to act as a stencil. I wet a sponge dauber with water, and rubbed over the cloud openings. The water reacted with the Distress inks, basically bleaching the color. After removing the stencil, I wanted the clouds just a bit lighter, so I rubbed over them with a wet Q-tip, using a dry paper towel to dab off any excess water/ink. I did the same basic process over the top part of the background, using Simon Says Stamp's "Falling Stars" stencil. The stars came out more like spots, but I still like the added texture.

After I'd finished my background, I removed the mask from the owls, and colored them with Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush. For the greeting, I stamped 2 parts from the "Lil Hoot" set in Versamark, then heat embossed them with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder. The embossing for the first part didn't seem to show up especially well against the darker background, so I used a white gel pen to add some highlighting to the letters. For consistency, I did the same with the second part of the greeting.

To finish the card, I added a coat of Glossy Accents to the owls' eyes, and mounted the panel onto a white A2 card base. This card will be going to Operation Write Home, for an overseas hero to write home to his/her child.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Up in the Clouds"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes"