Ombre Thinking of You

Lori McAree's challenge for Splitcoast Stampers' "Hope You Can Cling To" card drive is called "Light Days." The challenge is to use ombre--a light-to-dark gradient of color--on your card. I used ombre three times on my card: pink to red on the butterflies, light to dark brown on the lattice, and blue-green to yellow-green on the background.

I first inked a piece of white cardstock with Distress inks in Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Abandoned Coral, Barn Door, & Fired Brick. I die cut several butterflies from that panel, using the "Butterflies" dies by My Favorite Things. My idea was to have the butterflies going up the background panel, from a darker red color at the bottom to pink at the top.

For the lattice, I inked white cardstock with Frayed Burlap, Brushed Corduroy, Gathered Twigs, and Walnut Stain Distress inks. I die cut that with Spellbinders' "Grateful Lattice" die, and cut around the edges with my paper trimmer. (This die cuts only the lattice portion. It doesn't cut the piece out completely.) To create my background, I inked a third piece of white cardstock that I'd cut to 4x5.5" with Cracked Pistachio & Twisted Citron Distress inks.

I used drops of Ranger Multi Medium Matte on the back of the lattice piece to glue it to the background. I laid out my butterflies on the panel, until I got a nice arrangement, then glued them down. To create the mat, I inked the left & right edges of yet another piece of white cardstock with the browns, going in the same order as I had for the lattice piece. I glued the main panel to this piece, sat back to enjoy my handiwork--and then had a moment of panic. Where was I going to put a greeting???

I went through my stamp sets, looking for a small greeting. I found the perfect one in Mama Elephant's "In My Heart" set. I stamped it on a piece of white cardstock in Versamark ink, and heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. Then I inked over it with Walnut Stain, and cut it into a small banner. I glued it in place, and mounted my finished card front to a white A2 card base.