Let's Squash It – #17 Grasshopper Green

Hello everyone. It's time for a new challenge at Let's Squash It, and I'm thrilled to be making a guest appearance this month after being crowned the Empress of Squash for these cards that I created for the challenge back in December.

The idea of the challenge is to get out those embossing folders that many of us have been hoarding and put them to good use. If you check out the challenge blog, you'll find plenty of inspiration, especially from Gail and Jo, to use your embossing folders in different ways.

This month, we're asking you to feature an insect (or several insects), the colour green, and an embossing folder of course. Here's what I came up with:

I pulled out an old Sizzix Texture Fades EF by Tim Holtz (Winter berries – thanks Gail!) and ran it through my die cutting machine with a panel of Crafter's Companion watercolour card. I have discovered that using watercolour card gives a very crisp embossed impression and does not crack. And in most cases, the result is so smooth that no one will notice you've used watercolour card. It also works great with 3D embossing folders.

Anyway, after embossing my panel, I added colour by gently swiping several green ink pads over the raised surface. I decided to use some long neglected Studio Calico color theory inks (Yes Peas, Going Green and Lime Light) because these ink pads have a very stiff surface. When I did smudge the ink where I did not want it, I used a wet watercolour brush to scrub at the ink to make the marks less noticeable. That turned out to be a very happy accident, so that I turned it into a feature and drew out some of the ink in other places as well. I also added some splatters using the darkest green.

The butterflies (from an old (2013) stamp set by Clearly Besotted) were stamped in Versafine black and coloured in using Catherine Pooler inks and a ZIG blender brush. After fussy cutting them, I added some sparkle using a Spectrum Noir glitter brush and popped them up on foam tape.

The sentiment is from an older PTI stamp set (Bitty Butterflies).

I hope you will check out the Let's Squash It challenge blog for all of the details and play along!

I'm also linking up my card at:

SSS Wednesday - Emboss it

HLS CAS - Inky

Stamping Sensations - AG with wings or tails