When making a Mother’s Day card in May, I had the design all planned out. I was very unhappy with the initial result, but it led to a design that I liked even better.

The design was going to be super simple using an acrylic stamping block and re-inkers for the background with a silhouette image stamped in black over it. I used white watercolor paper and stamped the inked background on it. It looked so lovely that I did not think about the texture of the paper.

Stamped image by Stampin’ Up!

When I stamped the image over it, the texture became obvious and I just didn’t like the result. Naturally, I had waited until almost the last minute to make the cards, so I was in a mild panic trying to quickly figure out how to tweak the design. I decided to use some velum to stamp the image on and attach it over the background, because the colors would still show through pretty well.

The problem was that I had recently “cleaned up” my crafting area and couldn’t remember where I had placed the velum. Eeek! My husband saved the day by suggesting that I use tracing paper instead – and I actually knew where I had stashed the tracing paper. Shwew.

I stamped the image on the tracing paper, tore the edges, and attached it to the background paper with brads. The result is pictured here and I was so pleased with how it turned out.

I have been making cards for more than 10 years now, and it seems that the original design almost always ends up being tweaked somehow. These changes usually turn out even better than the original design. Over the years, I have learned to not panic too much if something doesn’t work out as planned. I just try to stay calm and go with the flow.

Making the card:

In making this card, I used a stamp from the Upsy Daisy set by Stampin’ Up! (I was a hobby demonstrator for Stampin’ Up! for about 10 years, so you’ll notice a lot of their images and colors in my paper crafting). The paper used was Daffodil Delight and plain watercolor paper (textured). The inks used were Barely Banana and Bashful Blue on the background, and Memento Tuxedo Black for the stamped image.

1. Take a clean acrylic block and place a few drops of each color of ink on the block
2. Spray the block with a little water
3. Using a small paint brush, push the ink around a bit on the block
4. Spray again with just a little water
5. Press the block firmly onto the watercolor paper (regular non-glossy paper should work, too)
6. Lift the block straight up so as to not smear around the color (unless you want to smear it, of course)
7. Let the paper completely dry (I let it dry overnight)
8. Depending on the look you want to go with, either stamp the image directly onto the background or onto velum/tracing paper which can then be attached over the background
9. Because I only used a panel, I then attached it to a folded piece of paper that made up the card