Welcome back to another 2015-16 Stampin’ Up! Artisan Design Team blog hop.  We are a group of international demonstrators selected by Stampin’ Up! to represent the company on our blogs and on social media.  If you are already going through the hop, you should have just arrived here from visiting my incredibly talented friend, Cindy Schuster. When you leave here you will travel on to visit the amazing Inge Groot. This week we are featuring any stamp set or product we want as long as it is from our current box of goodies. You will be amazed at all the fabulous projects created by the Artisan Design Team so be sure to go all the way through the blog hop!

It’s no secret that I love flowers and I am so excited to finally give this stamp set some ink. Here are a few things about this card that you should know. First, I wanted to use the flower clusters separately, so I cut them in half, down the middle. These are photopolymer stamps so it is really easy to see where to cut and I can always position the pieces as they were originally designed. Second, I stamped the flowers with Basic Black ink on Shimmery White cardstock and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. (This ink dries quickly, so you need to have your clear embossing powder ready to go.) The embossing really makes the stamping pop and it gave me some channels to help keep the ink inside the lines when coloring. It also really enhanced the black ink and made it stand out even more on that bright background. Finally, I wanted to show you just how vivid our ink refills are when you color on Shimmery White cardstock…absolutely stunning. I filled an AquaPainter with water used that to paint the images.

My paper curled quite a bit with all the water I added, so I put the card front inside of a folder piece of copier paper and ironed the backside. This will melt some of the embossing powder, so be sure to put something over it or you will have a BIG MESS!

I am really loving this technique and I can’t believe it has taken me this long to embrace it. I had to resist the urge to add too many embellishments. I wanted this card to be able to go through the mail easily, so I kept the thickness at a minimum. I could have even left off the bow, but you know how I love to add twine to my cards!