Taheerah Atchia

Hey everyone! I hope you’re having a Happy Monday!

So my latest Mama Elephant order arrived over the weekend. I cannot remember the last time I tore open a package so eagerly! It feels like an eternity since the release and those amazing sets – and the brand new ink!! I couldn’t wait to get creating with them!!!

The set I was looking forward to most of all was Winter Wonderland. This will be this Season’s ‘Into The Woods’ – mark my words, you heard it here first!! You’ll be seeing a lot of cards with this set from me and I’ll make no apologies about that. This is a set that will be very well loved!!

So for my first card to feature these goodies I had a wonderful idea in mind. I think it came together just perfectly:

Swoon!!!! I cannot convey how much I love this card. It is *beautiful*!!!

I started with a Rustic White card base. I wanted the format to be tall and thin to really accentuate those trees. I stamped them using the new Mama Elephant inks in Hazel and Smoke! I tapped both colours onto the stamps to allow for a transition from one colour to the next and it worked perfectly!!

I used the reverse of the branched trunk first, stamping off once before stamping onto my card to create a softer effect, as if those trees were in the distance and almost shrouded by a mist or fog. I then stamped with the image side for both stamps, without stamping off. Look at that glorious gorgeous effect!!

Let’s talk ink for a moment, shall we? A few crafty friends asked me to review these inks and pass on my thoughts. So firstly, the colours are *great*! I think they will really fill a hole in your stash!! The coverage is pretty good, being pigment, but being honest I think the Memento Luxe pads are better (and they are also more juicy). Although these inkpads are a little more juicy than my A:Muse inkpads I still had to give them a reasonable amount of taps to the stamp to get even coverage, and unless I stamped with a reasonable pressure I didn’t get full transference of the ink to cardstock. I found that the stamped images also didn’t ‘grab’ embossing powder as well as my Luxe pads, so definitely not as juicy there. The inks, being pigment, do take a little time to dry but I can’t say I’ve timed it or anything.

Quite a few of my cards this week will feature the inks and a few different techniques I’ve used with them, so you can build up a bit of a picture for yourselves as the week unfolds.

Would I buy these inks again? I would say so! I love the colours and the ink is nice and creamy and the coverage is reasonable. Would I hand over my Luxe inks or SU! Dye inks in place of these? Not on your life. 🙂

I might do an ink comparison post at some point, if there is appetite for it. If this interests you please let me know. 🙂

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled blogging. *wink*

After I’d stamped all my trees I went over the foreground ones using my Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen. I found that this pulled the ink a little when I didn’t want it to, so I dried my card a little with my heat tool to speed up the drying before continuing. I went over the trees twice to really add some sparkle that is still subtle – you should see how gorgeous this is in real life, the camera really didn’t pick it up well sadly. 🙁

After this all that was left was to add my sentiment. I chose this gorgeous sentiment from the Merry Greetings set and stamped it with Versamark ink before heat embossing with WOW! Metallic Platinum Sparkle embossing powder. You really should see this in person – wow indeed!!! I had originally stamped the sentiment with the Mama Elephant Smoke ink but it wouldn’t grab the embossing powder (as I mentioned above) so I had to stamp over it with the Versamark. I thought long and hard on where to place my sentiment (top or bottom) but in the end I’m extremely happy with my choice. I love how there’s almost a sense of ‘longing’ underneath it, with all that white space and the clearing in the woods below. Could not be happier with the end result. *dreamy smile*

Ahem, well it’s clear that I love this card, probably more than what you would class a healthy amount, ha! I would love to know what you think too though!!

I’ll be back later with the sneak peek for this month’s StampSpotlight! Yes it’s that time again already!! In the meantime I’m going to get a room with this card *wink* I would love it if you left some love before you went on your way!! Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

PS: I’m kidding about that ‘room’ thing. Maybe.