Easter Blessings

Hi all and welcome! I have 2 Easter Blessings cards inspired by the soft pastel rainbow colors in the current Inspiration Station Challenge #26 - Rainbow:

and 2 other challenges, as well:

I had some mixed media fun making these Easter cards and wanted to share how easy it is to change the look of a simple stencil in 3 easy steps. Starting with this 3" X 6" stencil (my NBUS) from A Colorful Life Designs called Church Window:

Step #1 - I ink-blended 2 panels with Ranger's Distress Ink in a pink, yellow and violet. For me, I almost always use Scrapbook.com's Foam Blending Tools and Wendy Vecchi's Make Art-Stay-tion for ease of use.

I let them dry thoroughly because the next step (#2) is to white heat emboss a background stamp over the entire page, including the ink-blended stencil image. If they are not totally dry, your embossing powder will stick to the ink blended portions. The background stamp used is MFT Stamps' background stamp called Romantic Script. - I just wanted the hint of words, not really legible.

Lastly, Step #3 - add a layer of glaze over the stenciled area. In my case, I used Brutus Monroe's Glitter Glaze - Fallen Snow. It leaves a beautiful sparkle and yet I can still see the wording through it. A scraper tool is very handy to get a nice even layer - I used Scrapbook.com's All Purpose Craft Scraper:

You could also use an old credit/gift card, but this tool is wider and fits all sizes of stencils. For about $2.00 it is worth the investment!

For one of the cards I cut out the stencil and mounted it on Fun Foam. Then I added it to a white embossed panel created with the embossing folder by Pink and Main called Garden Gate. If you follow me, you've seen me use this a lot lately. I love both sides of the designs and the texture and movement it give the background.

The other panel I left alone, just mounted it to a heavy white card base. Both have an "Easter Blessings" sentiment from a retired set from Poppy Stamps called Springtime Fun. I heat embossed the sentiments with Altenew's Caribbean Sky Crisp Embossing Powder. I very seldom used colored embossing powder, but I like the softness of the blue with these pastel cards. A few Honey Bee Stamps Gem Stickers and we are all set!

Not sure which one I like best, but I do love taking stencils, ink, embossing and glaze and mixing them up to create soft ethereal cards! Thanks for joining me today and thank you to the challenge hosts for their inspiration, too.

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