Cherry Card

A friend of mine from work asks me to make cards for her from time to time. She likes to have them custom made and I like the challenge of meeting the specifications. Recently she asked me to make a couple and this is one of them. She wanted a birthday card for someone who really likes cherries and for whom red is an auspicious colour. I don't have any cherry stamps (which is actually a bit astonishing given the number and variety of stamps I do have...) so I put out a plea with my local fellow demonstrators. My fantastic up-up-up-line had the Fresh Fruit set to lend me (thanks Josee!!!).

I drew the layout inspiration from this card on splitcoast and changed up the colours and embellishments. I like the offset image, but it did mean I had to use a bigger envelope. The sacrifices we make for Art! lol The background panel for the cherries is made with crimson Lumiere paint, dabbed on with a balled-up handful of plastic shopping bag. I've really been enjoying experimenting with these Lumiere paints lately. If it hadn't been a borrowed stamp set, I would have used the paint on the stamps and it would have looked fantastic! But, the paint does get on the wood and it won't come off. This give me happy memories on my stamps, but I didn't think it was such a great idea for borrowed stamps....

Back to the card. To make the cherries, I coloured directly on the rubber with watercolor wonder crayons, shading Real Red and Bravo Burgundy together, and Garden Green for the stem. I lightly misted the watercolour paper and the rubber before stamping. You want to hold the stamp down for a few seconds and let the paper absorb the pigment. Misting the rubber activates the pigment in the crayons and misting the paper lets the pigment bleed a little bit for a very soft look. Obviously the more water, the more bleeding, so a light touch is a good idea. You can always add another mist or two, but you don't want puddles.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the other custom card, which is finished but for a few final touches.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: All supplies Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted. Stamps: Fresh Fruit, Sincere Salutations; Ink: Palette Noir Black (Stewart Superior), versamark (Tsukineko); Paper: real red, basic black, watercolour; Accessories: watercolor wonder crayons, wide red grosgrain ribbon, Adirondack Acrylics in Espresso, crimson Lumiere, fine spray mister