Bringing you some sunshine.

I am SO excited to share two special cards with you this week!  A list of products used can be found at the end of this blog post.

In the past month or so, the timing has been just right for my kids and I to notice the sunrise at breakfast time.  We've seen some BEAUTIFUL skies ... to which my son always announces "Mother Nature is painting again!"  One sky, in particular, was so breathtaking that I knew it would inspire a card in some way:

I took that photo with my phone through a window and look at that color!  So, my cards this week are two attempts to capture some of that awe-inspiring beauty.

Both cards this week are cut to 4.25" square from smooth Bristol card stock.  I used purple tape to create a 0.25" (approximately ... no rulers involved!) border, which also secured the backgrounds to my work space.  For both cards, I used the My Favorite Things sunrise radiating rays stencil.  For one background, I applied VersaMark watermark ink over the stencil and used white embossing powder (set with a heat tool) to create the sun's rays.  For the other background, I first blended squeezed lemonade and spiced marmalade distress oxide inks on the paper.  I then applied the VersaMark ink over the stencil and used clear embossing powder (set with a heat tool) to create the sun's rays.

Next, I blended a mixture of tattered rose, abandoned coral and seedless preserves distress oxide inks onto both cards (over the embossed rays).  For the card with the white rays, I also blended squeezed lemonade distress oxide ink to the sun portion of the background because it was not covered with embossing powder.  For the card with the yellow rays, I cut out a circle of Gina K's masking magic paper to protect the area and maintain the original background color for the sun.  Finally, I spritzed some water over the blended backgrounds.

And THEN the fun part ... peeling up the tape!  Is it just me?  Pulling back that purple tape to reveal a crisp white line is just so satisfying!  I also wiped any excess distress oxide ink from the sun's rays with a dry cloth.  I love how these backgrounds turned out!  To me, they do both capture the essence of that sunrise pictured above.

I wanted to keep the sentiments for these cards simple and used the same technique for both cards.  For the card with the white rays, I used the My Favorite Things miss you die to cut the sentiment from card stock that I had covered with seedless preserves distress oxide ink (I did stack and glue three layers of this sentiment to give it greater dimension because it was so similar to the background).  For the card with the yellow rays, I used the Pretty Pink Posh thankful for you die to cut the sentiment from black card stock.  I layered VersaMark ink on top of both sentiments, covered the sentiments with clear embossing powder and set the powder with a heat tool ... twice.  (Using two layers of embossing powder seems to smooth out any bumps in the embossing powder.  Also, a trick I use to simplify this process (and not burn my fingers with my heat tool) is to temporarily adhere the sentiments to a scrap piece of paper, then apply the VersaMark ink, sprinkle the embossing powder and heat set, all before removing the sentiments from the scrap paper.)

I love the contrast of the sentiments against the blended backgrounds.  The cards are simple, but have so much texture!  I also love the perfectly imperfect nature of the backgrounds ... just like nature itself!  In some areas, for example, the embossing powder did not entirely cover the rays, which allowed some of the distress oxide ink to show through in those spaces.

I did add a few Pretty Pink Posh gems to the card with the thankful for you sentiment to cover up a little area of aggressive water spritzing.  :)

I hope that you enjoyed these cards.  Here is a list of the products I used ... all found in the Butterfly Reflections, Ink shop:

Thermoweb purple tape

My Favorite Things sunrise radiating rays stencil

Tsukineko VersaMark watermark ink

white embossing powder

heat tool

clear embossing powder

squeezed lemonade distress oxide ink

spiced marmalade distress oxide ink

tattered rose distress oxide ink

abandoned coral distress oxide ink

seedless preserves distress oxide ink

Gina K's masking magic paper

My Favorite Things miss you die

Pretty Pink Posh thankful for you die

Pretty Pink Posh jewels