Blissful butterfly

For this project, I was playing around with my new Distressing Essentials kit and my new Sale-A-Bration set, Bliss. Both were free! The first as my hostess benefits on a £150 order (yes, demonstrators get hostess benefits, too!) and the second because my part of the order came to more than £45 (yes, demonstrators get Sale-A-Bration freebies, too!)

So I set to work, ageing my paper and playing around, although I didn’t want to go too far for this card.

First let me tell you what’s in the Distressing Essentials Kit. It’s on page 103 of the catalogue (I’m telling you this because it’s just taken me ages to find it!) and it contains:

- four ink spots in Tea Stained, Charcoal, Mahogany and Night of Navy

- one small flat stamp for blending inks, reverse stamping etc

- one sanding block for distressing paper and cardstock

- one emery board for distressing and sanding small areas

- three precision files for distressing cardstock and for sanding around chipboard etc

First I aged the piece of Very Vanilla cardstock by applying Tea Stained ink using the flat stamp. I used it in a circular motion and was surprised that it created a very different look to both sponging and to the Direct to Paper technique (where you use the ink pad directly on the paper). It’s a much softer look. I did the same on the piece of Newsprint DSP.

Next I stamped the large flourish from Bliss in Tea Stained. Because the stamp is large and the ink pad small, I lay the stamp on its back and inked it by applying the pad to the stamp, rather than the other way round. And because I had chosen the unmounted option, I could stamp in the centre of the cardstock very easily.

I inked the butterfly stamp with a Real Red marker, then applied some Mahogany ink. I did this by inking the flat stamp with Mahogany and applying it on top of the red. This way, the ink pad didn’t get contaminated. And I got to use the flat stamp again in a different way.

I cut the butterfly out (badly, as you can see) and popped it up with Dimensionals, distressed around the Very Vanilla cardstock with the files and mounted it on a piece of Early Espresso. Added twine.

Next I stamped “Bliss” in the bottom right hand corner using Mahogany Ink.

Finally, I spritzed the whole card using the Color Spritzer Tool and the Real Red marker.

Now then, this should really have a piece of another colour cardstock on the card, because there was supposed to be a magic formula. I’ll tell you anyway. Here’s your shopping list:

Distressing Essentials            £14.95

Colour Spritzing Tool            £9.95

Newsprint Designer Series Paper            £8.75

Pack assorted A4 cardstock (which I forgot to use!)            £6.25

Stampin’ Write Marker (Getting Started colours)            £2.95

Linen Thread            £3.75

This little lot comes to a total of £46.60 and, if you order before the end of February, you can have Bliss, which is a Sale-A-Bration set, completely FREE.

Bliss stamp set            SAB            FREE

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