Pink and purple embossed flowers

Another bit of unloved stash taken down off the shelf and put to good use. I bought one of the Kaleidacolor multicolour ink pads ages ago out of curiosity; I think I maybe did a test stamp with it on some scrap paper, but I’ve never used it on an actual project. And then I saw a post on the Imagine blog using one with a Gelli plate to create a blended background and decided to give it a go.

I brayered the ink onto my Gelli plate to get a smooth blend and transferred the ink onto a piece of card and then repeated the process a couple of times until I was happy with the coverage. I added a few drops of water for texture and, once it was dry, heat-embossed the flowers twice in silver.

I could have left it like that but I felt like doing some simple colouring. No shading, just pink and may green for one spray of flowers and violet and light green for the other.

Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers are fun to use and have some gorgeous bright colours in the range, but they are hugely reactive with water and — as I’m the sort of person who could quite easily drop a fresh wet wipe onto a finished piece and ruin it — that’s not really practical. Luckily I found a solution: Tim Holtz Distress micro glaze. A very small amount applied using a blending foam (the jar is perfectly sized so that you can even keep one of the small round foam pads inside it) stops the colour from reacting. Obviously, it’s not going to save it if you dump a whole mug of tea over it, but it will stop it becoming a mess if it’s raining when the postman delivers the finished card.

To make the card, I trimmed the coloured panel down a little, used double-sided tape to stick it to a card base and added a thin glittery strip along one edge.

I could easily add a sentiment to this card, but I chose to leave it without one until I decide who it will be sent to.

Supplies:

• stamps:
  Gina K – you make me smile
• ink:
  Versamark
  Kaleidacolor – berry blaze
• colour:
  Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers – 025 pink, 080 violet, 041 light green, 047 may green, 052 bright yellow
• embossing powder:
  Judikins – detail silver
• embellishments:
  Papermania glitterations – black border
• paper and card:
  X-Press It
  Hunkydory Adorable Scorable pearly shimmer
• miscellaneous:
  Tim Holtz Distress micro glaze