Inspiration and variation

I get inspiration from various places, including magazines.  In this month's Craft Stamper, there was a lovely example of a stamped resist technique ("Bleached floral", p65 April 2018 issue) which I was keen to try. 

I didn't have the specified white embossing powder, so I had to use clear, hoping that the white card underneath would show through and have a similar effect.  I didn't have the same stamps used in the example so I chose the nearest I had from my own stash. The end result was fairly pleasing, but not as pretty as the one on the magazine.

So I decided to play around with the technique and use a different colour scheme and a totally different theme.  Again, a fairly pleasing result.  I will definitely try this again.   

I particularly like the idea of taking the background colours and applying a more intense version of them to parts of the stamped images.  Taking this aspect of the original card further, I decided to abandon the resist technique, use more vibrant colours and a black embossing powder.

This time I was very pleased with the end result.  I will definitely be using these techniques in the future.
A quick summary of the process -
I cut a piece of white cardstock slightly smaller than the card front.  I used an ink applicator to add the distress inks (Blueprint Sketch, Dusty Concord, Worn Lipstick and Festive Berries), then I added a spritz of a shimmer mist.  I stamped the butterfly image with embossing ink then embossed with black embossing powder.  I then used a water brush to apply ink (using three of the colours from the background) more intensely to parts of the butterfly image.  I stamped the foliage across the bottom in Hickory Smoke distress ink and then added the sentiment in black Versafine ink. I carefully applied a little water to the sentiment boxes and blotted with a piece of kitchen paper to slightly bleach the background ink in those areas.  Finally, I matted it onto black card, with only a very thin edge showing, and adhered it to the front of my card.