Growing in Unity: Insightful Meadows

Hello friends of Unity! It is day #2 of my Growing in Unity week, featuring high quality red rubber stamps from Unity Stamp Company! If you haven't yet, be sure to swing over to the Unity {Show & Tell} facebook group to check out amazing projects by other crafters--lots of inspiration to be found!

Today I am sharing one of my MUST HAVE stamp sets. If I had no choice but to pick five of my favorite stamp sets and let go of the rest (cough cough, never happening), Insightful Meadows by Donna Downey would make the cut. It has several different flower silhouettes and two wonderful sentiments. This is a versatile set--your imagination is the limit!

Today I went for a clean & simple design and made a one layer card. Even though there aren't any embellishments, the combination of ink blending and stamping has a colorful impact. For this card, I masked a rectangle with washi and paper scraps, then blended a quick background with Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers, and Wilted Violet Distress Oxide inks. Once dry, I splattered some water over the area and used a paper towel to lift excess water. I wanted a bit more pop, so I used some thick, white watercolor for a few final, bright splatters.

At this point I heat set the entire area, then removed my masking. I picked two of the flower silhouettes and played with placement before using my Misti to stamp them one at a time with Versafine Claire ink. I took care to make sure they would overlap onto the white background and add some interest to the single layer card. Last, I chose a sentiment from another Donna Downey set called Empowered Words. Simple yet powerful, like the card: be brave.

This is a great layout to make matching sets of cards, plus you can substitute pretty much any stamp and sentiment (or any color combo). No worries about postage, either, because it's one layer! Most of my cards have multiple layers, but this is a fun layout where the stamping and ink blending take center stage.

I hope you enjoyed today's project! Remember to comment on each post this week for a chance to win a grab bag from Unity! See you tomorrow.