My Favorite Technique

I have been meaning to post this for a little while, actually, ever since I made it. Thank you to all those who left their suggestions as to which technique I should try for my stamp club challenge card. It was a tough decision, but after a lot of pondering and eliminating, I think I have determined what my favorite technique is. Can you guess? Need a hint? Here is the card:

Do you think you got it? Well, if you guessed “sponging,” then you are correct! Previously, I used this technique to add depth and dimension to the edges of cards or popping color on stamped images (not to mention the chalkboard technique…ooo, I like that one too).

I love (love, love, love, love, love) the way this card turned out. I took sponging to a whole different level (for me at least). The front panel of this card is a white piece of cardstock…that’s right: white! The two leafless trees in the foreground are stamped, but everything else – the mountains, the distant trees, the rolling hills, and the sky – is all sponged.

I cannot take all of the credit for this card; I received inspiration from another stamper I came across while on my “favorite technique” hunt: Michelle Zindorf at Freedom in Creating. She created this card using the direct to paper technique with stamp pads. I tried it, but realized it was probably time to re-ink my stamps because they didn’t create much color on the paper. It is at that point that I thought I would try sponging it…and voila, a card is born.

This card also includes several other of my favorite aspects of cards (they aren’t really techniques): layering and dimension. I do so love to layer…pretty much everything. The card front is actually six layers thick (not counting the word box): picture, black, blue, black, yellow, and black (you can’t really see this last layer in the photo). Oh, and by the way, each layer is has the edges sponges…I just couldn’t help myself. I continued this to the inside of the card with a few more layers there. The layering adds to the dimension of the card: from the word box being popped out (with a couple layers of its own) to the dry embossed blue layer of the mat…I do so love it all.

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Recipe: Branch Out and Sage Advice stamp sets, Whisper White, Brocade Blue, Basic Black, and So Saffron cardstock, Basic Black, Basic Grey, Brocade Blue, Old Olive, More Mustard, Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, and So Saffron classic inc, Branches embossing folder, sponges (lots of these), dimensional spots, and lots of time.