Block Work

 Hi and welcome!  There's a bit of a back story to today's card.  I play a word game in the evenings on my tablet and it features different backdrops.  The latest backdrop really piqued my creative interest and I would ponder how I could re-create it in a card.  Here is a screen shot of the backdrop.

I figured stenciling would be the best way and using white ink to get the lighter tones would be easiest.  So yesterday, which was the last day of a long weekend, I sat down and came up with this card.

I am so happy with how this came out and it was so easy!  I started by looking for square masking stencils but the only ones I had were too big, so I made my own stencil with acetate and three square dies.  I then cut a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock and selected some Distress Oxide inks.  I ink-blended over the background - sort of mimicking the inspiration photo, but adding more blues and less pink.  Once I was finished, I took my acetate stencil and stenciled over the panel with the Distress Oxide inks, creating the squares you can see in the photo below.

Then, to add the lighter tones, I went over it again with the same stencil and Unicorn White pigment ink and this was the result.

The white faded back a bit as it dried but it still had enough variation to satisfy me.  Once it was dry, I die-cut it into a smaller panel with a stitched rectangle die.  So now onto the card!

I didn't want to cover up that background so I went for an inlaid die-cut sentiment.  I cut the Big Hugs die three times from black and once from the ink-blended panel.  I then adhered the ink-blended panel onto a white card base and stacked the black die-cuts back into the gap.  Now for the Doh! moment.  I decided to add some sparkle to the letters, so grabbed my clear sparkle pen, not for a minute thinking the liquid would react with the oxide inks (as I said earlier - DOH!). I couldn't start again so decided to make a feature of it and liberally sprayed all the letters with shimmer spray. I then added the top layer to the card but very slightly offset each letter so a hint of black would show through.

I white-embossed a sub-sentiment and added that across the die-cut word and then added some black hearts which I also sprayed with shimmer spray.

Thanks for visiting!  I'm entering this card into the following challenges:  

Inkspirational - Hearts

The Paper Players - Hearts and/or Stars

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Love is in the Air

Just Us Girls - Valentine

Products used:

Stamps:  Essential Sentiments (MFT)

Ink:  Versamark, Unicorn White (Hero Arts), Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberry, Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide Inks

Cardstock:  White, Bristol Smooth, Black

Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax, Blueprints 11, Band Aids, Big Hugs (MFT), Classic Squares (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  White EP, Acetate, Shimmer Spray

Cheers

Karren

Edited to Add:  This card got a shout out at Paper Players.