Single-layer Sympathy

Happy Sunday!  It's time for a new sketch challenge over at Sunday Stamps.  This time we are all about single-layer simplicity.  Check it out:



...and here is my project for the Design Team:

Sympathy card featuring the Butterfly Basics, Gorgeous Grunge and Everything Eleanor stamp sets with sentiment from the Best of Greetings (retired) set.

This card was fun to create!  As someone who LOVES to add lots of layers to my designs, it was a huge challenge to work with a single layer.  So, I set out to create the illusion of layers by using the masking technique.  I die cut a flower-shaped mask from a scrap of card stock using the Floral Frames Framelits.  Laying that over my Whisper White card stock panel, I then stamped several images from the Butterfly Basics stamp set using Crumb Cake and Soft Suede inks.  Then I sponged the entire area with Crumb Cake ink to soften and blend the images. 

After removing the mask, I heat embossed the flourish image from the Everything Eleanor stamp set in gold.  I also used gold heat embossing to add the sentiment from the retired Best of Greetings 25th Anniversary set.  I added some specks of gold with the splatter image from the Gorgeous Grunge set and metallic gold ink and then finished the design with a few strategically placed pearls.  The completed panel is adhered to a Baked Brown Sugar card base.

As I said, this card was a real challenge for a layer-lover like me.  Why not stretch your own creativity a little and give this one a try?  We'd love to see your work, so be sure to share it with us over at Sunday Stamps!