More one-layer fun with Mrs. RWS!

I brought my “Welcome Back” balloon from home to welcome you back to the Penny Black blog today.  This balloon welcomed me back from a crafty retreat I attended in Ohio earlier this month.  Don’t you love coming home, even when you’ve been someplace special?

Things are pretty neat and tidy here this week.  One layer cards don’t require as much cutting and pasting, therefore less mess.  Oh, how I have enjoyed this past week’s cards and admired the beautiful floral images.  No one does flowers better than Penny Black.

I don’t often think to make a one layer card and there is a reason for my hesitation:  there is no way to hide a smudge, fingerprint or misplaced bit of adhesive.  Be suspicious when you see a butterfly on my cards; it’s often been put there to hide a goof.

Here’s my first one-layer floral card:

I love this poppy from the Blooming Garden transparent set.  I’ve stamped and heat embossed the image and colored it with Copics.  I drew in the stripe and filled it in with a black Copic marker.  I added a few metal gems to help balance the image.

Hint:  If you are wondering how you are going to use up all the space on a standard sized card using only one layer, use a smaller size.  This card is 4”x4” and contains just the right amount of white space to please my eye.

Since I wanted this to be a single layer card, I created the illusion of another layer by using a negative circle diecut as a mask and filled in the open space with Distress inks.  I left the mask in place after distressing and stamped the flowers from Botanical Notes within the circle.  I added the sentiment from Kind Words.  I ached to add a tiny ribbon and bow just above the sentiment, but decided to follow the rules and stick to my one layer.  I left the rule-breaking for the final card in this post.

I thought my idea to use a Distressed ink circle was such a good one that I decided to use two circles on this card.  Again, I used the negative die cuts for my mask and filled in the area with an assortment of Distress inks … whatever pleased my eye.  I added a touch of Copic coloring to the images.  And, no, that butterfly isn’t hiding anything!!

The Slapstick stamp Softly is one of my favorite images in the Happy Everything release.  I knew I wanted to use it to cover the surface of this full sized card.  I practiced turning it this way and that and then had an “Aha” moment!  Can you guess what I did next?

Sadly, a stamp was harmed in the making of this card!  However, I absolutely love that I was able to fill my card with these sweet flowers.  They are a joy to color and were perfect for making a one-layer card.  Wish you could see the gentle sparkle from my Wink of Stella clear pen!

I have practiced lining the two halves up on an acrylic block and I’m happy to report both halves work together to create the original image.

The month of April included Evelyn Rose’s first Easter and this grandma made sure there was a card to celebrate the occasion.

No, it is definitely not a one layer card!  This is Penny Black’s Bunny Kisses and I’ve colored and fussy cut and added die cuts and enamel dots.  And there is lots of shiny Wink of Stella.

It’s been a good April.  It is a time of welcoming back.  I’ve gone away and returned home. The flowers and green foliage have been gone and we now welcome them back.  We welcome back the sunny and warm days after a winter of cold and dreary.   Pretty soon in this part of the world we will welcome back the hot and humid days of summer.

Speaking of being welcomed back, I do hope my assault with deadly scissors on the Softly stamp doesn’t keep me from returning to the Penny Black blog.  When confronted, I will flash my artistic license and plead for leniency.  See you next time!

SHOP:

 30-155  Blooming Garden

30-162  Eloquence

40-276  Botanical Notes

30-226  Kind Words

30-067  To You

30-014  Salutations

40-319  Softly

40-302  So Blessed

40-302  Bunny Kisses

 

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