I Have A Mint Crush

I've been busy busy busy again, so here's TWO cards I managed to make a few days ago.

I'm sad about a number of stamps that are retiring, and this Handcarved background stamp is one of them. I love it's informal chevron-ish look. I sponged the colours on with daubers and didn't worry about being too neat - but also didn't want to be overly messy and get some horribly muddied colours. I teamed this background with some more retiring products, the Label Love set and coordinating Artisan Label punch.

For the next card I decided to stick with the same colour scheme but go for a completely different look. I don't have a lot of Thank You cards in my stash, so decided to make one with the Because You Care set. If you haven't noticed it, it's a hostess set in the Occasions Catalogue and won't be available after June 2. I let a piece of Mint Macaron cardstock take centre stage on this card, it's definitely my favourite of the new In Colors, so expect to see a lot of it! Some of the items used in these cards, like that yummy Mint Macaron cardstock, can't be ordered until June 2nd, but don't forget June 2nd is a wonderful day when you can order from the current catalogue, the Occasions catalogue and the new 2015-2016 catalogue! That said, any retiring items you like you really shouldn't wait to order as they are only available while stocks last.

And the colour combination for both cards:

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Hello Butterflies!

Having a crooked or tilted panel on a card has become quite a thing of late. It's been a while since I've made one, and I was inspired when making some of my other butterfly cards.

The tilted layer is watercolour paper stamped with a Petal Potpourri image. I wet the paper before stamping so the colour would run a little, then filled in background. I found it a little tricky to get teh saturation of the watercolour right so the colour would run a little and not too much or not at all - bit of a Goldilocks moment when I got it just right! If you are trying it yourself and the colour doesn't run as much as you'd like you can use the aquapainter to give it a helping hand after the fact. If it runs too much you can try soaking up some of the moisture and ink with a tissue.

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