Wetlands with a touch of color

Ever since last summer I've had my eye on the Wetlands stamp set in the Stampin' Up! catalog. I immediately loved the sayings and images, especially the Canada goose, but I wasn't sure how much I would use it. Well, I've seen so many beautiful cards made with the set that I finally caved and bought it on my last order.

Most of the samples I've seen made with Wetlands have been beautifully colored or sponged (seriously, just Google "Stampin' Up! Wetlands"). But adding color is sometimes intimidating to me because it never seems to look as good on paper as it does in my head. So I decided to go a different direction and make a set of very clean and simple, one-layer cards.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Wetlands
Cardstock: Whisper White note cards and envelopes, scratch piece of 3" x 4-1/2" cardstock
Ink: Soft Suede (marker and pad), Old Olive, Crushed Curry, Pool Party
Accessories: Sponges and/or cotton swabs

For each card I stamped the image in the lower left corner with Soft Suede ink. I wanted to accent one part of each image with a touch of color, so I first tried using a sponge to apply the colored ink. That worked well for the water in the image with the birds, but it wasn't as detailed as I wanted for the other images. For those -- and for the shadows in the water image -- I tapped the end of a cotton swab on the colored ink pad and then rubbed it on the card. That gave me a lot more control over where I was adding the color.

When I was done with each image, I stamped the sentiment with Soft Suede ink. To add the border, I cut a piece of scratch cardstock to 3" x 4-1/2", placed it in the middle of the card and used a Soft Suede marker to carefully trace around the cardstock. Note: Go slowly near the corners so your marker doesn't slip.

For the full card set, I made two cards with each image and switched the sentiments (e.g., the second goose card says "Thinking of you"). To package the set, I placed the cards and envelopes in a cellophane bag, folded the top of the bag down to the back and then tied it closed with a piece of gold baker's twine.

I really like the way this simple card set turned out, and I'm glad I finally bought this stamp set. Thanks for stopping by!