Small Cards with a Big Impact

Small cards can be useful for sending through the post and needn't lack impact just because of their size.  I recently bought a pack of 3" x 3" cards and envelopes and decided to play around with working in a smaller format.

I cut two 7cm x 7cm pieces of Sheena's stamping card.  The NDC Shell stamp (#103) from Claritystamp was stamped onto one of them four times in Onyx Black Versafine ink and heat embossed in clear EP.

Using the black, grey, the three browns and the yellow ochre water colour pencils (WHSmith), I scribbled colour onto the shells following the spiral form.

These were then blended out using small circular movements and a water brush.  I made sure to clean the brush off regularly.

The background was coloured in blue and blended out the same way.

To add further interest,  I decided to layer the image.  To start with,  I used one of the nesting square dies from Tonic Studio to cut a 1.25" square from the centre.

Both pieces were matted onto black card leaving a very narrow border.  The two were then superimposed, lining up the images exactly.

Finally, the topper was added to a 3"x 3" white card blank.

For the second card,  I stamped the outline stamp from the Primrose & Friends set by Claritystamp onto the other 7cm x 7cm topper.  Once again I used Onyx Black Versafine ink but this time I didn't heat emboss the image.

Using the TH stamp platform to ensure precision,  I inked up the background stamp from the same set in Wild Bilberry Artistry ink and added it to the topper.  Because it is a dye based ink,  it gives an imperfect stamped image, but this is what I was aiming for.

I repeated with Lush Lilac Artistry ink.

And finished with a couple of impressions with Cotton Candy.

Rather than using the third stamp from the set,  I decided to use watercolour pencils (WHSmith) to colour in the flowers and leaves.  I coloured them roughly.

Then used a water colour brush to blend the colours.

The topper was then die cut using the 7cm circle die from the nesting circles by Tonic Studio.

The third smallest circle die from the Noble Pierced Circles by Sue Wilson (set A), was perfect for matting when cut from black card.

Once again, it only remained to add the topper to a 3" x 3" card.

It is now that I wish that I had the mini word chain stamps from Claritystamp to add a sentiment banner to each card.  They would be the perfect size for this purpose.  I will instead have to make do with stamping a sentiment inside each card instead.