January 2021 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop and Background Dies!

Happy New Year and welcome back to the Joyful Stars Blog Hop! If you've just joined me from the beautifully artistic Joyce Houck's blog,  thank you for continuing on to join me here!

After recovering from the holidays, I wanted to focus on something that didn't require a lot of thought in the design planning but wanted to to make something colorful.  With winter being a bit gloomy and wanting to send a pick me up to a friend or two, using our background dies with Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend Markers and Distress Oxide inks are just the tickets.  Its amazing how easy it can be to put cards together with just some simple tools.

This first card was made using Layered Floral Background Thin Cuts.  There are three thin cuts in the pack, which when bundled together, make a beautiful full-size A2 card.  However, for this card, I only used the layer that makes the largest flowers in this set.  To make this card, I used a soft embossing pad under a piece of White Daisy Cardstock and embossed with the plate without cutting.  This gave me an embossed image on the cardstock which showed me where the images were.  Using my Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend Markers, I colored the images, being sure to go outside the lines.  Although this was messy looking in the end, I knew it would be covered and needed to ensure that none of the white would peek through.

Next, I used the same plate to die cut the image on a piece of Black Cardstock.  I adhered this over the embossed and colored piece and adhered the whole thing onto a White Daisy cardbase.  The sentiment from the retired October 2020 stamp set, With All My Love, was stamped onto a scrap piece of Lemonade Cardstock using Black Pigment ink and embossed with Ranger Clear Superfine Embossing Powder.

Candied Apple, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, and Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide inks were blended in rainbow order onto White Daisy Cardstock for this next card.  I then spattered some water and Clear Shimmer Brush (although hard to see in the photo) over the colored base.  I then simply used the Hearts Background Thin Cuts die to cut the hearts stitched background from a piece of Black Cardstock.  

The sentiment again was used from the retired October 2020 stamp set, With All My Love, and stamped onto a scrap piece of White Daisy Cardstock using Black Pigment ink and embossed with Ranger Clear Superfine Embossing Powder.  By switching the sentiment, it can also make a pretty Valentine's Day card!

Now please head over to the artistically talented Marie's blog and enjoy the rest of the hop!