Keep It Simple and Mash It Up

Doesn't that Title sound like a good idea for dinner.  Hmmm - mashed potatoes and some chicken.  Oops - I digress - we are talking about card making and two different challenges.

I just found another new challenge called Keep It Simple.  Their challenge for the last two weeks is

Turquoise is one of my favorite colors.

The challenge at The Friday Mashup is color wash and a CAS project with minimal layers.

I dug out my distress inks and starting making color wash backgrounds.  I smooshed the ink on my work area and spritzed it with water.  I also spritzed the watercolor paper and then put the water in the distress ink.  On the Sympathy card, I rolled the ink around so that I pooled ink in some of the areas of the paper so it got a darker in some areas.  I really like how it turned out.  The birthday card started the same way but I got a more even color on this panel.  While the panel was still wet, I sprinkled salt on top and let it dry.  Once dry, you brush the salt away.  It gives a great finish to the color washed panel.   I am entering one of my cards in the challenge on Addicted to Rubber Stamps challenge to Make Your Mark - well I made my own color wash paper.  Hope that counts.

I used the same stamp set from Hero Arts on the cards.  The birthday card uses the outline stamp.  I then colored the flower in the distress ink.  When you use the distress ink without water, it gives you a deep rich color on the flowers.  I added some black gems in the center.

I stamped the flower on this card with the stamp that gives you the all over color.  Sorry the proper name escapes my mind.  I matted the image.  On this card I cut the top edge shorter than the back.  I lined the inside of the card with the same color as the mat.  It makes a very pretty card but it is very hard to photograph.  I added clear gems to the center of the flowers.

Both cards have a embossed background (white on white).  All the white in the cards, is recycled cardstock.  The sentiments are SRM Stickers.  I just cut off an edge on each color washed panel to get a strip that matched the cards.

Sorry for the long post.  I actually have one more card with the same color wash and flower stamp.

Thanks for the great challenges.  I am happy I was able to combine them and also I now have a sympathy card for my own supplies and a belated birthday card.  Numerous people could receive this card since I am a little behind on my birthday cards.