CLEAN and SIMPLE FLORAL GREETING

I have really come to love the clean and simple card designs.  That doesn't mean they are always quicker to design, but they allow the stamped image to be the focal point of your card.  These are samples of this type of clean design - similar inspiration, but different approaches.

The inspiration came from the CAS(e) This Sketch Challenge this week.  I first decided to try the variant colors by piecing cardstock together.  That worked well - just make sure that you have the pieces firmly butted up against each other so your stamped image is clean.  I was very happy with the results.

But I had really wanted to try inking the background, and then I saw a blog post from Close to My Heart describing how to use stamp cleaner to get a watercolor effect on the inked background.  So I decided to give that a try as well.  Click here to see that post.  I was really pleased with the results - although the splotches don't show up so well in the photo.  I think it's because the ink was lighter, they sort of faded away as everything dried.  But I still happy with the monochromatic background.  I just inked more at the bottom of the section than at the top so there was some gradient color.

In order to get the ink just where I wanted it with the straight line, I used washi tape to mark off my area.  Then I used a sponge to apply the mink ink.  I've tried using daubers for this, but the effect is not as smooth as using a sponge.  So I cut my sponge into six wedges - and I always add a tag with the color of it so I don't get them mixed up when I am using multiple colors!

On this card, I used mint ink and cardstock and black ink for the image and sentiment.

The floral image is from the Budding Peonies stamp set from CTMH (D1831). 
The sentiment is from Card Captions (S1901) the January Stamp of the Month from CTMH.

This inked background card is the one that I am entering in the CAS(e) This Sketch challenge.

You can head over to their blog to see other creations by clicking on the blog link in the line above.

For the striped background, I cut the strips of cardstock slightly wider than the white base cardstock.  This made it possible for me to make sure everything would be even.  It's easy to trim even with the base cardstock once everything is assembled.  I also found that I had to be VERY careful as I cut the strips - a little bit off and the background was going diagonally!  It is important to make sure that the strips butt up against each other so there is no gap for your stamped image.  I used ballerina cardstock (light side on the background) and mint cardstock - both light and dark sides of the sheet.  For the matting, I used the dark side of the ballerina cardstock.  The only drawback I found to doing the strips is that the sentiment needs to fit on the cardstock - if you try to overlap to the background piece, you will get a gap in the inking.  But otherwise, it's a quick process to create this design.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my cards!  If you are interested in any of these products, feel free to pop over to my CTMH website and check them out.