This was the first card that we created at the recent South Burlington stamp club gathering. I’m going to have to change how I refer to this group — we are no longer meeting in South Burlington! This time around we all enjoyed a wonderful evening stamping on the deck at the campsite of one of the members. We’ve been attempting to get together all summer and we just kept having to postpone for various reasons. Thankfully it all worked out last week and we had an absolutely PERFECT evening for stamping outside. It wasn’t too hot (it was before the big heat blast arrived), there wasn’t any wind and the bugs stayed away until we were all done. It was soooo great! It was one of those evenings that reminds us why we put up with the winters in VT – to get gorgeous summer days like that one.

I thought this would be the more involved card of the pair, but we actually zipped through creating this one pretty quick. There’s a little bit of technique involved to create the background, and it is really easy to do. Here are the steps:

  • emboss the main layer with an embossing folder; the 3D folders are ideal because the create a little more depth in the image
  • use a sponge dauber to lightly apply some darker ink to sections of the embossed layer; here I did it on the center of the ferns
    • this is to add some different color and depth to the embossing
  • ink up a rubber brayer with white craft ink and very lightly apply all over the embossed layer
    • you can soften the white by rubbing lightly with a cloth to remove some ink if it’s too stark
    • Stampin’ Up! doesn’t carry a brayer any more, but they are pretty readily available from various paper crafting sources
  • you’re all set – go ahead and use your embossed piece for an interesting background on your project
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