Simply Paper : My Journey to Card making

I have been crafting one thing or another most of my life. My grandmother started me off at 5yrs old doing cross stitch and needle point. My Mom was a seamstress and taught me to sew as soon as I could sit at the Singer and work the knee pedal. I taught myself to crochet when I was 18 to make a blanket for my first nephew.

In 1998 I began scrapbooking. I loved creating something that was more than a photo album, something that brought the pictures to life. Something that my now grown children and grandchildren love to open up and relive the good times in there lives. I never dreamed at the time that I would someday have a room dedicated to just crafts, and that I'd have enough of that stuff to stock a store. LOL

Card making came as a direct result of my love for stamping on my scrapbooking pages. I love to give gifts that I have created myself so I started making gift tags and cards for friends and family. Card making then became my favorite craft. Oh, I still scrapbook to keep up with the grandkids lives and I still crochet, but Card making seems to be my greatest love and I do it as much as possible.

I love discovering new stamp companies and recently I stumbled onto the website of JustRite stamps. (http://justrite-papercraft.myshopify.com/) I love all these beautiful stamps and have used them on many of my cards. This company is affiliated with Spellbinders.

My card today is made with a JustRite background stamp that I just fell in love with. I'm always inspired by cards with lots of colors and flowers. They make me happy so in turn, I believe they will make others happy.

Products used:

JustRite #CL-05089 Blooming Vines

Hampton Arts (Smile)

Canson watercolor paper

Ranger distress inks

Ranger Archival ink

Misti

I started by placing the stamp in the Misti, inking with archival ink and stamping it. The beauty of the Misti is that if the first impression isn't perfect you can re-stamp until it is. When I was happy with the outcome I started water coloring using my ranger inks and a paint brush. First the leaves, I used Peeled Paint distress ink, I painted a very lite watered down layer. When that was dry I went back to each leaf with the same color, with less water and added just a touch to the bottoms of each leaf for shadow and texture. I did the same with the flowers using Shaded Lilac distress ink.

After I was done water coloring I placed my paper back into my Misti, making sure it was in the exact spot as when I stamped the first time, and stamped it again to define the out lines. Then I used Abandoned Coral distress ink and a blending brush and did the outside edges of the card.

I cut it down to 41/8 x53/8 and wrapped a piece of purple nylon ribbon around it and tied a knot. Then I adhered it to a violet card.

I stamped the word smile and the frame from the same set and fussy cut it out, popped it up with dimensional tape and I was done.