Flutter... Flutter...

Hello! Hostess Tami here with a card featuring Smooch - both Smooch Accent Ink and Smooch Spritz. The card utilizes a technique that is an oldie but a goodie and one I don't find myself remembering to use very often... MASKING.

I like cutting out bits and pieces, I find it relaxing, so if I want to stamp an image on a background that might interfere with said image, I just stamp the design on a separate piece of paper, cut it out and glue it on the background. In this case, I wanted to create a "sky" background for my card using Smooch Spritz. But I also wanted the two lower butterflies and the under image of the "Smooched" butterfly to all be black and white - I didn't want the sky to show through the butterflies. So, I'd usually just spritz the whole card front, stamp some extra butterflies on white cardstock and cut them out and adhere them to achieve that. But I felt that the dimension of cut pieces would detract from the focal point, the "Smooched" butterfly that I wanted to cut and adhere with it's wings bent. 

That led me to pull that old reliable technique of MASKING out of my bag of tricks. The ironic thing is that you STILL have to stamp and cut out extra butterflies! 

To create this card...

I first stamped 3 butterflies on the card front and 3 extra butterflies on white cardstock, all in ColorBox Wicked Black Archival Dye Ink. I cut out the 3 butterflies on the white cardstock, leaving just a hair of a border around the images {cut off the antennae}. Temporary adhesive was then used to adhere the cut butterflies over the stamped butterflies on the card front - masking them for the next step.

The card was placed in the Color Catcher and lightly spritzed using Sea Kiss Smooch Spritz. After the Smooch had dried, I removed the "masks" - the cut butterflies, to reveal the still black and white stamped butterflies underneath. And viola! flat stamped butterflies that did not have the sky beaming through them...

An additional butterfly was stamped on white cardstock using Pepper Limited Edition ColorBox Pigment Ink and embossed using Top Boss Clear Embossing Powder. This butterfly gets a colorful metamorphosis thanks to Smooch Accent Ink.

I like to emboss a stamped design if I plan on filling it in with Smooch Accent Ink, it makes it easier to fill in the design if you have "rails" to keep the colors where you want them.

I picked sun-shine-y shades of Smooch with a touch of Lime to fill in the design: Gold Lame', Sundance, Carrot and Luscious Lime. I started with Gold Lame' at the top of the designs on the wings, then added Sundance, then Carrot and finally small touches of Luscious Lime. I then used a small piece of a clean paper towel to gently blot the design which serves 2 purposes. 1) It removes any excess ink that got on the embossed portions, ink there will take longer to dry and you risk smearing the undried ink on your image. 2) It gently blends the colors together to soften where the edges meet.

When the Smooch was dry, and it dries pretty quickly on porous surfaces, I cut out the butterfly, bent it's wings up, and adhered it by the body only, matching it to the body on the top butterfly...

I wanted the sentiment to be subtle, and to blend in with the rest of the card, so I used a circle stamp with "thinking of you" repeated inside. The circle sentiment stamp was inked with Wicked Black Dye Ink and stamped off the sides of the card in the open areas...

SUPPLIES:

Clearsnap Products:

• ColorBox Archival Dye Ink: Wicked Black
• Smooch Accent Ink: Gold Lame', Sundance, Carrot and Luscious Lime
• Smooch Spritz: Sea Kiss
• ColorBox Limited Edition Pigment Ink: Pepper
• Top Boss Clear Embossing Powder
• Color Catcher

Other Products:

• Stampendous: Cling Single Butterfly
• The {Stamps} Of Life: Sentiments4Circles
• Bazzill Basics: White Cardstock
• Beacon Adhesives: Zip Dry

Tools:

• Trimmer, Scissors, Temporary Adhesive and Heat Gun