Happy Birthday Butterfly

I love this stamp, Indra, from Lavinia Stamps.  I have had it and used it for about four years but never posted a card with it.  Maybe it's because, although I make plenty of cards, I have often not had the time to photograph them and write a post.  I am going to try to be more regular in posting.  I saw that the Seize the Birthday challenge topping this cycle was use a silhouette, so I thought I would make a card featuring Indra and actually post it.  I am getting this in just under the wire.

I started with watercolor paper and sprayed with water, Distress sprays and lots more water, so the colors really ran and dried it with my heat tool.  Then I flicked on water, n mostly large drops, tilted the panel so they would run a bit, and then let it dry naturally which meant the ink that pooled at the edges of the drops dried leaving darker rings around them.  Next I used a swirly corner stamp from Inkadinkadoo and the Sacred Spells script stamp from Lavinia without using blocks to randomly stamp bits and pieces providing more texture.  I stamped Indra using black archival ink on the panel and on a piece of scrap paper to cut out a mask to protect her while I spattered white Dina Wakley Gloss spray around her. Lastly I inked the edges with black Versafine ink.  Now for the sentiment.  I planned on using sentiment strips from Taylored Expressions, but the card seemed too dark and needed contrast, so I ended up using a die from Gina K Designs which I cut three times and stacked.  The "happy" is a piece of one of those sentiment strips.  The larger die cut added the balance and brightness the card needed.

I am also entering this card in the Critter Crazy Birthday Bash, which is celebrating their 100th challenge, and Retro Rubber Stamps challenges to make a birthday card.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi