Using less paper!

I have been spending soooo much time drooling, yes I said drooling, over Inspiration Avenue and all the new stamp sets that are coming out next week that I have barely done anything! So this morning I went into my craft room and settled in to make some quick cards. I hope you enjoy them!

I decided to show that it is possible to make pretty cards without having layers of patterned paper or cardstock. While I love my paper... if you need to budget out your stock, then here are some ideas to try! I used stamps from Flowers and Holly, Simply Divine, and Trendy Greetings. This first one has a masked border, I stamped with Versa Mark, and embossed with Transcendence then sponge/wiped on Versa Magic with a cosmetic sponge. The image is colored with a water brush picking up Versa Magic ink.

This Card I colored the stamp with Tombow markers and stamped it, even put both stamps on the same block to do it all at once! Then used the Scor Pal to create a border, which for some reason only the top and bottom really show in the photo, but I did the same two lines on both sides as well! This is a very simple card and could be made in bulk quickly!

This flower was colored with prismacolor pencils. I used a paper peircer in the corners and as a circle around the image and then sponged ink around the outside to grunge it up a bit.

I had a great time trying out these techniques and hope you will too! Let me know what you think!