Fith Avenue Floral's final days in the spotlight!

If you love to watercolor, this is a lovely stamp set for that!  I recently created this card for my Techniques Club class to show the "watercolor splash" technique, AND the retiring fancy fan letterpress plate (which I believe is still available on the retiring accessories list for $4.70 or something like that!)  Anyways, onto the card!

For the gorgeous "water color splash" rose, emboss the large rose image on shimmery white card stock with Versamark ink and white embossing powder.  Then roughly trim around the image, put it in a plastic tray, and spritzed it liberally with water (if you're wondering whether you've got enough water or not, spritz some more!).  Touch the tip of your aqua painter into a drop of More Mustard re-inker ink and touch it to your (now curled and wet) rose image -- if there's enough water, you will see the ink spread out through the water pooled on the project.  Let it spread around, and help it a little if you like.  Next, dip your painter in Ridinghood Red re-inker and work the color from the outside in, so the darkest is on the outside, and lighter towards the center.  When you're happy with the color, let it dry -- or use your heat tool to speed the process along. Remember, if your color isn't spreading enough, it means you need more water.  Finally, trim closely around your rose and adhere to your project.  You can use any combination of re-inkers you desire -- using a lighter color towards the center, and darker towards the outside.

Now for the fancy fan letterpress plate -- I haven't used this plate much, but the technique is very cool!  Use chocolate chip craft ink to fully ink up your letterpress plate.  Lay chocolate chip card stock panel on top of plate, and put it through the Big Shot using the recommended sandwich:
Multipurpose platform on tab 2
letterpress plate
card stock
cutting pad
card stock shim to create a deeper impression

Craft ink works better than classic ink with the letterpress plates, as it is more opaque and adheres more evenly to the plates.  If you want a white background using the plate, I suggest using watercolor paper as it is thicker and gives you a more defined, textured background than the thinner Whisper White card stock.

Of course, the leaves are the little sizzlitt leaf die, and that lovely pleated satin ribbon was in the last mini catalog. 

I hope you'll try some water color splashing in your craft room this week! :)