Hollyhocks on Heather!

I recently bought this stamp called Hollyhocks from Unity Stamps and inked it up the other day!  I'm not in love with this card, but I AM in love with Brutus Monroe's cardstocks!  To begin, I tapped out several colors of distress oxide inks (Broken China/Faded Jeans/Iced Spruce) onto my craft mat, spritzed them with water then blotted up the inks with Not Your Mamma's Ultra Heavy Base Weight card stock, (now, THAT'S a mouthful!) and was delighted at how well it took my watery inks!   I then stamped the Hollyhocks onto the background with Wilted Violet oxide ink and then Iced Spruce.

I created a little stencil using my Punchinella die and added the dots of Iced Spruce in a couple of places.  I heat-embossed the Hollyhocks in black over the finished background and I love how they really stand out!  I wanted to darken the edges so I sponged Brutus Monroe's Sea Surface Ink around the edges, then trimmed my panel down and roughed up the sides with my scissors for a distressed look.

But did I stop there?!  Heck, no!!  I then got out my new little pot of Brutus Monroe's Unicorn Horn Glitter Glaze and smeared a little onto my craft mat, then tapped a dots-stamp into it and stamped it around my panel.  I like the little sparkle it adds!   I also recently received a lovely selection of Brutus Monroe's card stock and chose to make my card base with Heather.  I inked up Hollyhocks with Wilted Violet distress oxide then added some Sea Surface Ink, spritzed it with water and stamped right onto the card stock!  Again, I was impressed that it took the watery ink so well, with no buckling or warping!  After attaching my distressed panel to the card base, I found this stamped sentiment from the Super Sentimental set in my stash and placed it on with Thermoweb's Sticky Strip Runner which doesn't show through the vellum!  A spattering of black paint added the final detail to my card!  I have many more colors of the beautiful 100 lb cardstock by Brutus Monroe in my stash now and will be using it from now on!  Go see what I'm talking about!