Kissing

Happy Monday! Everyone have a good weekend? I spent most of it doing some much-needed relaxing, and got some crafting done as well. I've got some laundry to do this afternoon and a bit of crafting to finish up, and then I'm off to the Chicago White Sox game tonight! It's been a while since I've been to a game, so I'm pretty excited. :)

One of the projects I got done this weekend is a card for the current Use What You Have Challenge at Sweet Stamp Shop. I've been a faithful participant in these challenges for a couple months now and love digging through my stash each week to see what I can find!

I am in LOVE with how the background of this card turned out! I used my stash of Tim Holtz Distress Inks (see below) to create the background. I used Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, and Barn Door. To give it a watery look I applied each of the inks on wax paper, sprayed them with water, and then pressed the paper onto the wet ink until the paper started to absorb the color. For faster drying I used my heat gun, but you could also let it sit overnight. As for the hearts, I stamped a teeny, tiny heart stamp (it came in a Gnomies sample set I won from a UWYHC a while back) in Spun Sugar and made the hearts look like they were floating up from the bottom. 

My "stash" of Distress Inks.. I may or may not have all of them. :) Because I've only been crafting for a couple of years, my stash is nowhere near as abundant as other crafters. Sure, there are a few things I bought when I first started crafting that are still lying around, but for the most part my "stash" is constantly growing, making it harder to find "old" things to use. Since I'm a girl who likes to have every color of everything (hence all the Distress Inks, Liquid Pearls, Stickles, you get the picture) I like to find ways to use my stash of these since they spend most of their time on my shelf. Coming up with techniques like the background on this card is a fun way to ensure they get used!

Now I bet you're wondering where I got these awesome stamps, right?! Both the sentiment and the two cuties are from Sweet Stamp Shop's "Kiss Me" stamp set - one of my favorites! I stamped the sentiment directly on the background once it had dried. As for the kiddos, I stamped them on white cardstock in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and then cut them out and adhered them to the card using pop dots. Love it!

I'm off to get my laundry started, have a great rest of your day and thanks for stopping by!