Spread your Wings....

I was random blog hopping through some of my favorite stamp/paper makers last week, when I had sudden inspiration from the Memory Box blog to make a card like this. I loved the two stamps (tree and bird) and I wanted to stamp them right onto the patterned paper, and color them in. I knew if I stamped it onto regular paper, cutting out the tree branch would be torturous. Then I thought I would stamp it onto vellum and cut it out. Didn't like that at all. I thought and thought, how to color onto a pattern paper without being too dark? Then suddenly it hit me. A little while ago I did a technique called Black Magic, where you stamp a solid image in white pigment ink onto a dark cardstock, then color in the white areas with colored pencils. Maybe I could use a similar concept with this card. I stamped the images directly onto the DP, then embossed with Ranger Espresso EP. I then took a bit of Gesso, watered down a little bit and colored in all the areas of the tree branch and bird with a tiny paintbrush. Because I had embossed the images, I didn't have to worry about going outside the lines.
Then it was just a matter of waiting for it to dry a bit, and I colored it in with my colored pencils like usual. I love the effect! This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for me! I'll definitely be trying this technique again soon.

Hope it inspires!

Stamps: Memory Box, Papertrey Ink sentiment

Ink: Versamark

Paper: Memory Box, Heavenly White, PTI, vellum

Accessories: Martha Stewart deep edge punch, SU taffeta ribbon, Gesso, Embossing Powder, colored pencils, OMS, Stickles, Tiny flower punch from The Punch Bunch, pearls