Thank you teacher #4

Hello! Happy Canada Day!  Here's another thank you card for teachers.  I started with a sheet of paper that some time ago I had spritzed and sprayed with Dylusions ink in shades of pink and red.  Quite often I make extra when I have my spray station in operation.  (My spray station is the top of the deep freeze in the furnace room, so it can't be a permanent fixture.) I also like to mop up the extra colour with scrap paper and keep it on hand for future projects.

Once I had selected my Dylusion-y paper, I chose this wonderful negative image poppy stamp from Hero Arts.  I stamped it in Blackbird fluid chalk ink (Colorbox) because I wanted a very juicy ink, but also the detail of a dye rather than a pigment.  I also didn't want to emboss it in this case.  I trimmed it out, mounted it on some black then spent quite a bit of time auditioning card bases for it.  This is the part I always find trickiest, because some papers wash out the vibrant colours and neutrals can be too stark a contrast.  I often find that Japanese tsumugi paper is the answer, as it seems to be richly coloured enough to balance out the intensity of the Dylusions.  This card base is a lovely warm smoked paprika colour.  (I got mixed packs of notecards at my local art store - Wallacks, but if you can't source it in your local store, check out The Japanese Paper Place - they have links to retail locations and on-line sellers too.)  To finish off the card, I added a few dots of Black Diamond stickles to the poppies with centres showing.

Do you have any plans for Canada Day?  I will be making strawberry jam (how is that patriotic?  it's red and makes use of the wonderful berries that are at their peak locally) and watching World Cup soccer.  And quilting.  Fun day!

Thanks for stopping by!