Poppies

Good morning friends.  Last week my good friend Sue showed me a beautiful card she had made with a poppy stamp, and I asked her if it was a Impression Obsession stamp, and she said "no...Rubbernecker".  I really wanted to CASE her card and thought I had a poppy stamp somewhere...low and behold, the exact same stamp that we both bought at the stamp show last August in Novi!  Yes friends, it is pretty sad when you don't even know what you have.  A true addiction for what I pray there is no cure!!  Anyway, I played around with the stamp and this is what I came up with:

I used the "smoosh" technique for my water colored background (as Betsy Veldman and Laura Bassen call it!), using Bundled Sage and Tea Dye Distress Inks and Harvest Gold dye ink.  You just press your ink pads onto a sheet of acetate (or a craft mat), then spritz some water over them, and then "smoosh" your cardstock onto it.  Let it dry and you come up with some beautiful water colored backgrounds!  Next I added a layer using SU!'s "En Francais" background stamp (retired), that I also misted with some water to keep with that  water colored look.  I then colored directly onto my stamp with Real Red, Cherry Cobbler, & Old Olive markers, spritzed with water, and stamped.  Once this dried, I did go back in with my black Copic and blender pen for the centers, and my Aqua pen and some Cherry Cobbler ink for a little more definition in some areas.  Mounted this onto black cardstock and then added to a kraft card base.  It sounds a little long and complicated, but was really very easy and was mostly waiting time for areas to dry before I went on to the next step. 

I still like my girlfriend Sue's card much better, and I hope she will post it on her blog sometime soon so everyone can see it (Sue's Stamping Station).

Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful weekend! :0)