Backporch: Magenta Card Exchange: The Netherlands

I love participating in the Magenta card exchange each month. It's fun and interesting to send and receive a card from all over the world. This month, once again I got to send a card to someone in the Netherlands, one of my favorite countries in the world.

I tried stepping out of my comfort zone with this card, since my preferred go to colors are bright jewel tones. The background of the center panel was made using an acrylic block stamping technique (second stamping) and Distress inks with Perfect Pearls powder. I have a tutorial for that technique here.

When I apply the Distress inks to the block, I spray the inks with water infused with Perfect Pearls powder, and that gives a nice shimmer to the stamping.

It's hard to capture the shimmer in a photo, but it's easier to see in real life.

This photo that I posted for the sneak peek really shows the shimmer.

The stamp I used is a favorite of mine, the beautiful Astilbe image. I inked it using small iCrafter brushes that look like daubers.

I inked the entire image at once, using the MISTI to ensure that the stems on the background would be properly stamped.

The background panel was made with the shaving cream technique, and I have made so many great cards with these backgrounds. You see a tutorial of that technique here and the pink and red panels were made in this post. If you search for "saving cream" on my blog, you can see the many times I have used these backgrounds.

Both panels were cut with the Greetery Crimped Frame die. I stamped the sentiment and matted the panels with black cardstock.

In the end I even stamped the front of the envelope with this pretty stamp.