A Birthday card and New Bee Rubber

For the background I started with Ranger's new specialty stamping paper.  I had been hearing how wonderful it was and decided I needed to get a pack to try.  This was my first time playing with it and it really is wonderful!!!!  I sprayed the paper with Stamp Zia Chroma Sprays (sun, cherry, and lava), dried it, and then sprayed again with cherry using a Plaid Stencil (ditsy floral) and dried.  Randomly stamped a text image (Wendy Vecchi Studio 490) with Ranger's Archival Ink pale ochre.  Added a line of stitching with my sewing machine and distressed the edges with Zutter's Distrezz-it-all.  Stamped Happy Birthday (Art Impressions) with Ranger's jet black Archival. Stamped the leaves (larger leaves are Paper Inspirations, smaller are Posh Impressions) with Archival Ink pale ochre and viridian and Adirondack meadow.  The bird (Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations) and leaves (small thin metal die and I can't remember which company it's from) are cut from grungepaper.  The bird was inked with Ranger's snow cap pigment, dried and then colored with Distress Ink.  The leaves were colored with Distress Stains.  Flowers are Primo.  The heart brads weren't a deep enough yellow so I dabbed them on Ranger's sunshine yellow pigment pad and heated... perfect!!

Yesterday I received new stamps from Quietfire Design (see all the new ones HERE) and had to play a little.  The background I had left over after making the above card... after I sprayed over the stencil onto the background I used for the card, I lifted the stencil off and laid it ink-side-down on another sprayed piece... nice, huh!!!!  I cut that down to atc size and used it here.  Stamped the quote and both sizes of bees using Ranger's jet black Archival Ink.  Drew the border with a black pen... also added some other doodling in an effort to hide a smear I made with my finger when I was stamping the bees... in person it worked well - in the picture the smear is more noticable.  Sprayed a scrap of roses from Tim's Ideology trimmings with Stamp Zia's Chroma spray lava, dried them and brushed the top with Distress Ink barn door.  Added a brass bee charm from my stash... rubbed on some jet black ink... nope, not quite right... added Ranger's snow cap Paint Dabber on top working it into the grooves, dried it, rubbed on jet black ink with my finger catching the high spots, dried it, dabbed it with mustard seed Distress Stain and dried it... looks good!!!   Edged the card with Distress Ink wild honey.