Have you ever tried blue flowers on your cards? Check this out!

I have been enjoying painting with Tim Holtz's distress inks so much but for today's card I decided to combine the traditional ink-blending technique with my watercolor painting.

This corner bloom from MFT Stamps provided the perfect opportunity to use the ink pads both for dry-blending and watercoloring.

I heat-embossed the flowers with white embossing powder and then used Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean and Cracked Pistachio reinkers to paint the flowers and leaves. Once I was happy with the depth of color in the flowers, I got out my blue distress ink mini pads: Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon, Stormy Sky and Faded Jeans, blending from the lightest to the darkest color and letting it fade out near the left side of the card. It provided the perfect sweet spot for a sentiment.

I heat embossed Altenew's "happy birthday" sentiment and then double matted the card on to two pieces of cardstock: I colored white cardstock with the same distress ink colors as for the shading in the card to make the first mat layer and used a silver glitter cardstock as my second mat layer. I thought it tied together the various elements of the card perfectly.

Last, I sprayed some Tim Holtz distress ink "Brushed Pewter" mica spray and added little sparkly gems from Honey Bee Stamps.

I thought this card brought two elements together successfully: elegance and glam, don't you think?

Remember to get all your crafty supplies in the shop!

See you next time,

Mansi.