SPARKS Challenge Card - Get Well

I've got another SPARKS challenge card for you today.

It just so happens that in my recent CTMH order, in addition to my new sanding kit, I had two new ink pads: Grey Wool and Sunkiss Yellow...providential when you look at this inspiration photo, don't you think?



For this card, I was really inspired by the line/shadow of the gray branch of flowers. I used the flower and leaf from the Hot Concoctions stamp as well as my trusty blending pen to mimic that branch. Then I cut around it, leaving a little bit of a white border and adhered it to some Juniper cardstock with liquid adhesive.

I also really love that the fabric texture comes through in the photo, so I wanted to sand the entire piece once I got it adhered....DISASTER!

Turns out sanding doesn't work so well when you fancy cut an intricate piece (which is very thin in places, and on which you also did a lot of shading with the blending pen)....the whole top layer (with all the stamping) came right off! Not what I was expecting, but it turned out to be a happy accident.

When you sand the top layer of your cardstock off, you end up with a kind of felty looking layer. So, I went ahead and re-stamped on that layer....being a little more careful with the blending pen this time as the color shows up more saturated on this layer. (I'm planning to do a lot more experimenting with this. You can create some pretty neat textured backgrounds with this technique.)

The teapot and cup which are also from the Hot Concoctions set are stamped (three times) on some Grey Flannel cardstock which is then sanded. I added the ground for the teapot and tea using the blending pen.

I scored another piece of Gray Flannel cardstock and sanded that to create a mat for my main piece and to add a just a touch of that yellow, I swiped the Sunkiss Yellow stamp pad around the edges of the white card base. By the way, I found the cheapest, and best scoring tool....an old (dried out) ball point pen. Love that it never 'jumps' like the old scoring stylus I have!

So there you have it. This card has a much different look than the other Paper Smooches cards I've made, but I really like how it turned out.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Paper Smooches - Hot Concoction; CTMH - A Little Bit of Everything
Ink (CTMH): Grey Wool, Sunkiss Yellow
Paper (CTMH): White Daisy, Juniper, Grey Flannel
Other (CTMH): Blending Pen, Sanding Kit