Hi everyone, the beautiful Celebrate Sunflowers bundle is currently on sale until the end of the month. I thought I’d show you a couple of cards using this bundle where you don’t have to colour the large sunflower as I know some of you don’t like to colour. The cards have been created using a fun technique called Negative Ink Layering which was first popularised by Jennifer McGuire. It’s actually a super simple technique and packs a big punch!
All you need to do is start by stamping your image, in my case the large sunflower from the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp set, on a Basic White cardstock panel. If you have a mask already as I did, you can put it straight on top of the image. If you don’t, then you need to create one by either die cutting a mask or fussy-cutting one. To create my mask, I use Full Adhesive Post-It Notes which I get from Officeworks. If you go with the easier option of die-cutting one using the Sunflowers dies, you will end up with a white halo around the stamped image. Don’t worry about this, you can always come back at the end and colour this white space with the coordinating Stampin’ Blends or Stampin’ Write Markers.
Once you have added your mask, pick the inks you want to use to create your background and then apply with a Blending Brush. Before removing the mask, take a stencil (I used the Dots from the Basic Pattern Decorative Masks pack) and position it over the panel. I use repositionable tape to hold the mask in place so it doesn’t move. Next, take the Whisper White ink and smoosh it onto an acrylic block. The reason for doing it this way is that we are now going to take a Sponge Dauber, ink it up and repeatedly pounce it over the template. The Sponge Dauber may pick up some of the base colours and we don’t want to contaminate our Whisper White ink pad.
When you are happy with your inking, you can either remove the stencil and masks and leave the card as it is or you can stamp through the template to create even more interest. I didn’t do this last step as the dots are quite small and you really wouldn’t be able to make out anything of interest.
I removed the stencil and cleaned it so I didn’t get ink everywhere. I also removed the masks and put them aside for another project. If you used a mask created with the Sunflower dies, you can now colour in that white halo with the coordinating Stampin’ Blends or Stampin’ Write Markers.
As I was going to be stamping directly onto the panel I had just created I used my Heat Tool to make sure this background was completely dry. I ran my Embossing Buddy over the top and then inked up my greeting with Versamark before white heat embossing it.
All that was left was to layer the panel onto a Thick Basic White card base and my card was finished.
Here’s the first card…
This card uses Balmy Blue, Pacific Point, Misty Moonlight, Night of Navy and Just Jade inks.
Here’s the second card…
This card uses the Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Polished Pink inks.
These cards are so fun to make. I highly recommend making sure the masks are also completely dry, and not too inky before you re-use them as adding new ink over the top does reactivate them which is why there are a couple of odd colours on the pink version of my card.
I do hope you’ll try this technique. It’s so easy and you could really step it up depending on what stamps and templates you use. Don’t forget the Celebrate Sunflowers bundle is on sale until the end of March 2022. You can purchase it, and any other supplies you need, in my online store.
Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a great day!
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