The Ombré Technique At Craft Stamper. . . . .

Hello everyone. I've been gone again for quite a while - sorry. Just settling in to our new home, having chimneys swept and not really having a crafting hat on for much of the time. I really don't like it when you want to play but the mind is blank and no amount of messing around produces anything that satisfies.

I decided to look around for some inspiration and thanks to a reminder on Facebook by Jenny, I went back to my Craft Stamper and flipped through until I found the article on the Ombre technique. I didn't have a clue what it was and then realised that this was probably something we've all done from time to time with our inks and paints. I just didn't know it had a name!

The latest challenge on the Craft Stamper blog asks you to produce a creation using the technique and this seemed to be the just the kick start I needed to get inky again.

I decided to get three distress colours out and some stamps and have a play. I wanted to make something useful so decided on a card - you don't see many of those here do you?!!

Here's my latest offering. Something a little different but so much fun to make (thanks Jenny!):

I chose three distress colours: barn door, spiced marmalade and mustard seed along with a much loved LP stamp and a sentiment stamp. Some die cutting, punching, dry embossing, stamping, water brush work and finally a little twisted wire (because I can't resist it!) and there you have my card. Oh, and of course, the Ombré technique!

I've used three different layers to work with: plain card, dry embossed card and canvas. Each layer displays the Ombré technique using the colours chosen. I so love the stamp used and I was pleased how well it worked over the coloured background.

I used parts of the stamped image to make little punched blossoms and used a water brush to bleach out the colour from the iconic LP cheeks. I used all three distress colours in turn for all the blossoms so they kept the technique going throughout the card.

The top layer of card was firstly inked in the manner described in the magazine then embossed in a folder for extra texture. The middle canvas layer was also coloured using the technique and some walnut stain distress was added to the edges.

Some card was again coloured with two of the shades, stamped to add extra detail using a combination of both inks on the stamp. When dry a label was cut and stamped with the sentiment in archival. Some brads coloured with alcohol ink finish the label.I used some foam pads to attach the label for extra dimension. You can also see the stamping on the bottom layer here - it's very subtle.

As you may have guessed, I stamped the image several times and then used various sections on my card. Here I have cut out the 'rose' image, used a ball tool on the back to add dimension and attached it in the appropriate place on the card.

In this image you can see how even the tiny flowers have been given dimension by using a ball tool on the reverse.

Some rusty wire was gently coiled and added to the card. I used the direction of the embossed pattern to determine where to put the wire.

I used most of the stamp image but did remove a little section at the top because it looked to fussy when cut out. This stamped strip was attached to the embossed card using foam pads for extra height.

So love those little faces peering out from the blossoms! Tiny black gems were used for the centres of the blossoms - bling's not my thing but I like these tiny ones for this purpose.

I really enjoyed this little make and the great thing is of course, I get to add another card to my rather small collection (I should make more!).

Thanks for having a look and not giving up on me completely! Two more projects are almost ready to go so perhaps you really WILL see more of me now. Hope you are all well and I look forward to trying to catch up with you.