Background Stamping

Hollyhocks.  

I love hollyhocks.

I've always heard my great-grandmother Sarah Jane had hollyhocks and sweet pea, and it's made me want them even more.  We used to have hollyhocks growing abundantly in our east front yard--every color, growing as tall as I am--but over the years they faded out, and it's been a struggle to get new ones growing.  Sweet pea, I just planted out by the back fence this spring.  

I love this hollyhock stamp from Serendipity Stamps so much, I'm always looking for new ways to use it.  

This afternoon I made a card for the 

On a scrap of watercolor paper (leftover from a calligraphy project), I used an oval mask and inked up this big stamp from Inkadinkado with brown dye ink.  I lightly misted it with water before stamping, for a slightly mottled look.  

Removing the mask, it was time to color my hollyhock stamp with watercolor pencils, laying on thick color, misting and stamping.  The sentiment is from Flonz.

When dry, I layered this piece on a pre-folded kraft card and added a few wood sequins.

Oh, good.  It looks like rain, and I can hear thunder coming closer.  We need it!

Thanks for stopping by!

I love your comments!

Clearsnap Color Challenge

Hello!  It's been a long time.  I didn't realize just how long, until I was skimming through here last week.  I haven't posted since February?  Really?  Ouch.  

Well, I can't say everything's quite back to normal, but I am trying to get back bit by bit--back to calligraphy (I dived in with a fun piece I designed for a wedding gift), back to smocking (with thre projects going at once!), back to cardmaking.  Cardmaking! I'd better get back, because my mother's stash is getting mighty low,...and we've still got more birthdays coming up.

While perusing some of my old haunts, I discovered the Clearsnap blog, and with it their Color Challenge. Since I use a lot of Clearsnap inks, I thought I'd like to enter the

June Color Challenge

I've had this poppy embossing folder I've been wanting to use since Christmas time, but I just never had a good idea for it before.  I used it to emboss a scrap of white cardstock, then sponged this with Yellow Ochre blending into Caliente in the lower right corner, and Ice Blue blending into Surf in the opposite corner.  I attached this to the front of a pre-folded white card and added a tag for my message.  Done!  Fast and fun.

Materials:

pre-folded white card; white cardstock

Poppy Field embossing folder from Darice, Inc.

Ice Blue, Surf, Yellow Ochre and Caliente inks from Clearsnap

Stitched Tags die set from Pretty Pink Posh
sentiment is in an old set from Printworks

I've missed you.  Let me know what you've been up to!