I was inspired to make this card after seeing Anette Hjerpaasen's fabulous One-Layer Hello Card that she sent to Dawn.
I used 140# watercolor paper as my card base, so it would still feel thick and luxurious, even though it is only one layer. I stamped Hero Arts S5146 Bold Flourish twice on the card front using VersaMark watermark ink and then heat embossed with Ranger seafoam white embossing powder.
Then I used Eclipse Tape to mask off the horizontal bands. I used Tsukineko sponge daubers to apply Distress Inks to each band. The top has Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans. The middle has Dried Marigold and Rusty Hinge. And the bottom has Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint. For each band, I applied the lighter color first, a single stripe of the darker color, and then blended that in with more of the lighter color to give the graduated effect.
I removed the masking. Then I stamped the "happy thoughts" sentiment from Hero Arts CL267 Card Messages using Ranger Archival Ink in jet black. Then I added three different sized pearls to the darker edge of each band from Hero Arts CH213 Sea Mixed Accents (blue), CH216 Sunshine Mixed Accents (orange), and CH214 Earth Mixed Accents (bronzy green).
To finish the card, I stamped and embossed the Bold Flourish design on the back of the card, too. (If you try this, be sure to lay the card out flat when you emboss, or you will heat the embossing on the front side and may stick it to your work surface or smudge the original embossing!)
Thanks for looking! :-)
