Bright and SUMMERY friendship card with Erica

Hi guys!

Erica here! Today I have the pleasure of being back on the BRI blog as a guest blogger, while the new team is getting settled in and all the puzzle pieces find their places.

In case anyone *cough, cough* noticed the headline of the post today you may have noticed that the word SUMMERY is indeed in cap letters. That's because it's still technically summer, people!! Yes, it is! I will not hear another word on the matter, it's summer until Sep 21st and that's that. I'm a through-and-through summer girl, me. Just in case that wasn't like super clear or something, lol.

I do however love leaves and leaf stamps. And Turn-About stamps from Concord & 9th! Oh, yes, so fun, I can play with mine for hours and hours. Today's card is made using the Thankful Leaves Turn-About stamp. It's so fun how the leaves are overlapping each other, mimicking the look of leaves on the ground. Because I wanted to use this stamp but aren't ready for fall to kick in just yet (although I do love the colour palette of fall... ) I decided to use bright and very untraditional colours for the leaves.

As this was the first time I used this particular stamp, I took the time to do the lining up on the back (see Concord & 9th's website for instruction video if you need a helping hand) I also find it quite easy to use a 5.75"x5.75" sized piece of card stock for the stamping. Not sure why, but I generally get really great results when it's a bit bigger than the usual 5.5"x5.5" square.

Back to the stamping! I obvi used my MISTI for this (like duh! LOL), using a very random but bright Distress Oxide ink mix. One of my favourites is Picked Raspberry and I had to use it. A few of the other colours I picked out were Dusty Concord, Mermaid Lagoon, Mustard Seed, Twisted Citron and Mowed Lawn.

If you want to see a time-lapse video of the stamping, hop on over to my Instagram HERE.

In the middle of the panel I stamped one of the sentiments from the stamp set, 'Your kindness means so much', in black ink twice. I probably should have added clear embossing powder to make the sentiment pop a bit more.

I also trimmed down the panel to 5.5"x5.5", made a card base the same size, and adhered the panel to it. It felt a bit flat... probably had something to do with the fact it is a one-layer card. So to add some texture to it, I added lots of Nuvo Jewel Drops in Limoncello, Sea Breeze, Key Lime and Strawberry Coulis. Then the trick is to leave it well enough alone until ALL the drops are dry!

Well, that's it from me for today, but I might be back sooner rather than later! If you want to see more of my work in the meantime, I've got my own blog and of course Instagram.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica