Sapphire Feathers

All I can say is that when I love a color; I become obsessed!
Color of the week is Chipped Sapphire, Night, Midnight Muse, Navy...however, you label it...it's that deepest of blue. It's the blue that can be used for a Night sky or a deep ocean. It's that shadow of blue that foretells of threatening clouds on the horizon; the kind that bring the lightning.

I also have lots of new stamp sets that I haven't used yet so I pulled one out today. The stamp set is from Hot off the Press: Feathers. It's one that I'm going to be using a lot...it is very versatile. I hadn't really realized it when I bought it, but this is a layering stamp set. (When I bought it, it was on sale and BEFORE the stamp layering trend had really kicked in! Now everybody is coming out with a set of stamps that can be layered over each other!)

It all really began with my idea for layering. I wanted to use gelato to stamp the back stamp (more solid image) and use ink over the top for the detail. Then, I wanted to ink blend over the top of all that. Gelato forms a resist against ink. So I gave it a try and this card ultimately resulted from my experiment.

I stamped the "shadow" of the feather in gelato but it doesn't really show up after the ink blending. I also stamped some smaller feathers which you may see faintly in the background. Even though this just started as an experiment, I liked how it came out and decided to make a card out of it anyway.
But this led to the question of why didn't the gelato show up? I figured the background wasn't dark enough so the resist didn't really show up well. Hence, my next experiment/card.

So I went all out. I applied Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink directly to my cardstock from the pad. I rubbed it right in there. Then, I stamped my shadow feather on top with gelato. It looked better than the first experiment. But instead of stamping the detail feather in black on top, I decided to just emboss the image. I stamped with Versamark ink and applied Lindy's Stamp Gang Magic Moon Pearls powder. (This is a new favorite! Love how it makes anything beneath it look pearly!) The embossing actually looks like I stamped with a colored ink and embossed. Added water drops because...you know...that's what Distress Inks are REALLY good for.
Even though it looked fantastic, it wasn't exactly what I was shooting for. I was hoping the embossing would have been almost invisible...less pronounced. So I've got even more experimenting to do with this!

I learned from my last art fair that people are looking for sympathy cards and my sister-in-law told me that she always seemed to be in need of that type of card as well. Sympathy cards had not really been part of my inventory. Of course, I usually make blank cards...so that they can be used for any occasion. But with a sympathy card, I discovered it was important for it NOT to be blank. It's hard enough to find something to say to someone who has lost a loved one, let alone write it in a card.

That's why I went in search of a stamp set with sentiments for sympathy cards. I found this one from My Favorite Things. I liked the simplicity of the sentiments and the way they would easily fit onto a card front or on the inside or both.

So the next two cards started with the shadow feather stamp. I had just stamped it off a couple times to get more of the gelato off of it before cleaning it. I got two more decent images so made a couple sympathy cards.

I used up old paper and Dazzle stickers (both from Hot off the Press) and overall just had a good time making some cards!

All my requirements for a good art day were met: using up scraps, trying out new stamps, playing with products just because, and using a favorite color.

I'm gonna hate going to work tomorrow! :)
-Wy
"I reject your reality and substitute my own."  --Mythbusters