Project Recipe
I started by stamping the large floral image from Birthday Blooms (retiring) on a piece of Painted with Love Specialty Designer Series Paper (retiring) using the Stamparatus (available June 1) and Archival Basic Black Ink (retiring). Since this is a pretty large image, I stamped it a couple of times to ensure I have good coverage. I cleaned the stamp then inked it up with VersaMark ink and stamped it again. I added some Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder and heat set it using my Heat Tool. Once the embossing powder had cooled a bit, I used my Paper Snips to fussy cut the large flower. To hide the white cut edges, I went around the edges of the flower using the side of the brush tip of my Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker.
I cut a piece of Whisper White Thick Cardstock to 3-1/2 x 4-3/4". I stamped the same floral image in the lower right hand corner using Archival Basic Black ink. I also stamped one of the coordinating sentiments from the same stamp set toward the upper right of the panel, also using Archival Basic Black. Using a mostly dry Aqua Painter, I watercolored the leaves using Old Olive ink and the flowers using Calypso Coral and Melon Mambo ink.
It's important to keep the Aqua Painter as dry as possible for two reasons. The first is because I wanted to keep the colors very vibrant to try and match the intensity of the color on the DSP. The second reason is because I wasn't using watercolor paper. As long as you don't let the Aqua Painter get too wet, Whisper White Thick can handle a slight bit of moisture OK since it's a heavier card stock. Of course, it would also be perfectly fine to substitute and use Watercolor Paper or Shimmery White Cardstock instead as both of those can handle water just fine.
I cut two mats for the focal layer. The first was from Calypso Coral Cardstock cut to 3-5/8 x 4-7/8". The second was from Melon Mambo Cardstock cut to 3-3/4 x 5". I adhered the Calypso Coral layer to the Melon Mambo layer using Snail Adhesive. I adhered the Whisper White Thick layer to the Calypso Coral layer using Tear & Tape Adhesive. Since I had added some moisture to the Whisper White Thick layer, I wanted to use a really strong adhesive to ensure it wouldn't buckle up over time.
I created a top-folding card base from Whisper White Thick Cardstock. I wrapped some Basic Black Solid Baker's Twine around the matted focal panel three times and finished it off with a small bow. To hold the bow in place, I tacked it down with a rolled up Mini Glue Dot. I added several Stampin' Dimensionals to the back of the matted focal panel then adhered it to the card base. Finally, I adhered the fussy cut DSP flower in place over the stamped flower using Stampin' Dimensionals and that completed the card.