Ink Swiping

A few weeks ago I saw this tutorial by May May Made It about swiping layers of ink over dry embossing.  Now I have inked embossing folders and used sponge daubers to selectively apply color to parts of the design, but this looked so free and unpredictable!  I looked through my embossing folders for ones I thought might be interesting  for this technique, embossed a stack of card fronts and swiped away to make some backgrounds which I put aside because life got in the way of card making.  Don't you hate it when that happens?  Then I saw this Freshly Made Sketch:

Instead of using that center panel to stamp and color, why not make the wide frame the most interesting part?  In other words, it was the perfect sketch to use one of my ink swiped, embossed card fronts!  The embossing folder is Swirls and Curls from Stampin' Up.  I am not sure what colors of ink are in this one because I used so many that day, but I do know that I sponged some Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide ink around the edges to ground it.  I used the Happy Large Word Die by Whimsy Stamps to cut three in white and one in Fresh Fig and then stacked them to give some dimension.  The sentiment strip was stamped using the Well Said set also from Stampin Up, embossed with white detail powder from Gina K Design and popped up with foam tape.  

Ink swiping was so much fun I can assure you that you will see more of it in the future.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi. 

In Memory of a Steel Magnolia

I made another version of this card for a friend whose mother passed.  It had just a hint of color on the flowers and a sentiment in a beautiful script.  It was really pretty, but no quite right.  You see, GrandBetty was what we in the south call an iron or steel magnolia:  a woman who is soft and sweet like a magnolia on the outside and strong as steel on the inside.  She was an artist who loved children, and she was never seen without her hair done.  When she could no longer leave her home, her angel of a hairstylist came to her home to make sure she was properly coiffed.  I have no idea what color her hair really was.  Yet she handled life's challenges, and there were a few, head on.  Of course she did so with dignity and grace.  No, I needed a different card for her to honor her.

The pink, delicate drawing, and sparkles keep it sweet, but the pink is brighter and I used bold stripes on the edge and a sentiment embossed on a black strip to provide contrast and better reflect who she was.  The layout is based on this Freshly Made Sketch:

The stamp is by Simon Says Stamp and I colored it with Prismacolor pencils.  I am much happier with this version.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi