Discover Yourself

My friend and neighbor Lynn retired this year after 25 stellar years as a teacher for Advanced English classes.  Heaped with well deserved accolades and honors over the years, Lynn is the high water mark of excellence in education.  Her retirement has met with huge regrets in her school and was a challenge for me to try and make a card worthy of her sustained efforts over the years.  Thanks to the genius of Tim Holtz and his Distress line of inks along with his innovative techniques, I think I got close . . .

This is one of a handful of cards I’ve done over the twelve years of stamping that has my unreserved (well, almost) approval.  Those Distress inks are utterly without equal and allow amateurs to come off looking like they know what they’re doing – always a plus in this amateur’s book.  After stamping the three Distress inks close together on my craft sheet, I water-misted 4X, and then Perfect Pearls-misted* 2X.  I then dragged/mopped up the results with the watercolor paper and dried with my heat gun.  Two repeats, and I was nearly done.  The final touch was his “Spritz and Flick’ technique:  spray some water into your hand and fling it onto the paper.  Watch for the water spots to appear and dry again with the heat gun.  Gorgeous!  I then overstamped the text and images.

Cardstock:     Bazzill White, palest Green, generic watercolor paper, vellum

Stamps:         Tim Holtz Just thoughts, Urban Tapestry

Inks:                 Distress Frayed Burlap, Chipped Sapphire, Shabby Shutters, ColorBox Black, White, Perfect Pearls Mist*, Gelly Roll Star Clear pen

Emb Powder: Judikins Detail Black, Stampendous Ivory Pearl

Dies:              Joy Butterfly

Doo Dads:      Antique Copper brads, Silvery Green eyelash fiber

*Perfect Pearls Mist:  this is Jennifer McGuire’s mixture of a scoop/heaping stirrer of Perfect Pearls and a Mini Mister bottle full of water.  Shake well every time you use it and bask in the non-glitzy glow and shimmer of the subtle but gorgeous results.  Vary the amount of Perfect Pearls to your tastes.  I spritzed twice for this card, but sometimes I want more shimmer so couple more sprays should do it.