Layered Floral Birthday | ft. CTMH " Beloved Bouquet"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

First off, I just want to thank you all so much for the support. The responses to the Distress Showdown I posted yesterday have been overwhelming. I cannot tell you how much each click and like and view mean to me. You guys are awesome.

Today I thought I would do something a little different. It's a relatively new (to me) technique that has been gaining popularity in the crafting circles. Layered stamping. I'm always surprised at how lovely these turn out, which is silly because they work exactly the way they are designed to.

To begin, using the MISTI, I stamped the solid flower from Close to my Heart's "Beloved Bouquet" Tulip ink. To get full coverage, I stamped this a couple times. This is where the MISTI becomes invaluable. I can't line up a clear stamp to save my life, so the MISTI has become one of my most used tools in the craft room.

Next I stamped the detailed flower over top in CTMH Barn Red ink. Then I masked the flower. I stamped the solid leaves using Pear ink, then stamped the detailed leaves using New England Ivy. Once everything was dry, I removed the mask.

I stamped the Birthday greeting from Stampendous "Happy Messages" using Golden Glitz Delicata ink and again let everything dry.

Then I drew a frame using an ultra-fine Sharpie. For the dots I used Opal White Liquid Pearls by Ranger. As you can see, I need some more practice with these. I found them to be thick and they kind of had a mind of their own. They didn't really want to do what I wanted to do, but I was very happy with the card thus far, so I went with it.

Once the panel was completely dry, I adhered it directly to a standard A2 sized card base.

On a side note, I cannot stress enough the importance of letting this dry between each step. Use your heat tool if you have to, but you don't want to add a layer of water-based ink on top of a layer of water-based ink that has not dried. It will run and it will wick out, and if that is the look you are going for - fantastic. It wasn't the look I was going for, and I had to learn that lesson the hard way.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar. You can also follow me over on Facebook. Toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Crafting from the Heart

Challenge #174 Anything Goes

Crafting with an Attitude

Challenge #31