HSS #319 Farmhouse Style

It's time for an inspiration challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  This one celebrates the charm of the farm house style and florals.  I decided to blend the two and mimic the "hello" image on the inspiration mood board.

Oh how I wish you could see this card in person.   The texture and color is divine.  Here is how I made this lovely farm house style wood background:

• On Whisper White Cardstock stamp the Birch Background Stamp with Purple Posey Ink.
• Use an Aquapainter with plain water to smear the purple ink.  Go heavy with this step to pill the paper, yes overwork the paper to add natural texture.
• Run the paper through the Subtle 3D Embossing Folder.
• Cut into (5) even pieces.
• Lightly sponge each piece with Crumb Cake Ink.
• Adhere piece in order on card front.
• Use your finger to distress the edges.

In keeping with the distressed appearance I lightly sponged each of my stamped and cut floral images.  This step really brought the flowers to life and added visual dimension.  The stamps I used for the flowers came from the First Frost Stamp Set and the dotted circle image is from Merry and Bright.  The die cut greeting is from the Well Written Set.  It's cut from Early Espresso and shadowed with a matching cut of Blackberry Bliss.

I grabbed a bunch of Stampin' Write Markers for a direct to image technique to ink up and stamp my flowers.  For the thistle I used Pacific Point with Blackberry Bliss.  The rose is inked with mostly Rich Razzleberry and touches of Blackberry Bliss and the leaves were stamped with both Bermuda Bay and Mossy Meadow.   The balance of the leaf image is a have mix of Mossy Meadow, up the stems, Rich Razzleberry, and Blackberry Bliss.  For all of the images I blended the ink colors with a stipple brush and then huffed a breath to activate the inks before stamping.