VersaMark ink .... used as ink?! A set of Mother's Day Cards.

I have recently been trying to expand my technical knowledge when it comes to stamping, embossing, and card making. I have been watching lots of videos and tutorials. My current favorite person to watch is Jennifer McGuire as she always produces beautiful cards and I learn so many neat tips and techniques from watch her videos.

With Mother's Day rapidly approaching I needed to make two cards and I wanted to attempt some new skills at the same time. Here are the two cards I finished with:

The first thing I wanted to share that I didn't pick up on was how easy it was to make card bases. For the longest time I was going with a 4" x 5.5" card. I always had an annoying 1/2" strip of paper left over from cutting off the edge when it is completely unnecessary!

Start with a standard 8.5" x 11" piece of cardstock. Now cut it in half long ways (vertical). Bam! You now have 2 top folding cards that are 4.25" x 5.5" when folded. What's that? You don't like/need a top folding card... cut the cardstock in half (horizontal) instead and you now have cards opening the other way.

I'm not sure why I didn't learn this 'trick' earlier. You may already know of this ridiculously easy card making technique, but I had to share because there is always someone out there who doesn't know.

Moving on... For the card background I used two colors of Distress Ink: mowed lawn and peacock feathers. I started with the blue and rubbed it around in a couple places on the card. Next, I filled in the remaining white spots with the green ink then went back with the blue and blended it all together. Finally, I used some water in a little spritzer and misted the whole card to help things blend a little bit more. I'm not 100% sure if this was necessary, but I am still happy with the result. You can seem my progress below in the pictures.

The initial color - Peacock feathers.

Next, I added the color mowed lawn to the white areas.

Finally, the background after blending, misting, and blending again.

On a whim, I tried something I had never done before... I used VersaMark ink as an actual ink, not just for sticking embossing powder to. I had a new stamp from Penny Black called "letter background" that I really wanted to use. The result was a very subtle but visible stamp. I used a heat gun to quickly set the VersaMark.

After the VersaMark has dried, I am left with a subtle background image that I ended up really liking.

Next, I used a multilayered stamp set from Hero Arts to make the flower embellishments. I didn't have a stamp-a-ma-jig or a misti tool when I started, so I just eyeballed it. Prior to finishing this post. I bought a stamp-a-majig. I use it all the time now. It is pretty awesome, and a lot cheaper than the misti tool. I forgot to take pictures, but you can see the final product on the card.

Each flower is a set of three stamps with progressively darker inks.

Next, I heat embossed the sentiment on the front of the card and added some leaves from the flower stamp set to the inside of the card.

Just a little hint of color on the inside of the card.

Overall, I am happy with how these cards turned out. There was a lot of experimenting with the new layered stamp sets and the distress ink blending. I know it's not perfect, but I am still looking forward to continued practice. Thanks for reading!