Rainbow & Caffeine & Critters—Oh My!

Hi crafty friends! Today I am sharing a suuuuuper easy card featuring the newest *limited edition* release from The Rabbit Hole Designs! It is a mostly one-layer card but packs a rainbow punch! 🌈 🤜 Read on and I’ll show you how to do it quickly and even step it up! 🧡

Isn’t this so cute?? Between the rainbow goodness, the clearly caffeine-addicted critters and the punny sentiment, this card just makes me smile!

I started with a white cardstock US A2 panel (4.25x5.5) and used my mint tape from Scrapbook.com to mask off the top left and bottom right diagonal areas. It took roughly 3 strips of mint tape per side. I also tested the size by laying down my middle stamp to make sure the top and bottom hung off just a teeny bit. I wanted that contrast of the black on rainbow and black on white.

After I finished masking, I used my Pinkfresh Studio inks and 1” “Magic” blending brushes to ink blend my rainbow. (If you want to take it a little slower, try blending just one color from darker or heavier pressure to lighter, or maybe blend two colors. It will still be beautiful!) I started with my yellow first just a little left of center, then added the green, blue, purple, and then went back to do orange and finally red. I also cleaned my stencil in between major color families, especially if I was going to go back and pump up the color, which I did once on each color. It can be tricky to get the spacing right, which is why I start in the middle and work my way out. Don’t be afraid to go over each column of color with a neighboring color, that’s exactly how you get a beautiful blend! Well, that and a teensy bit of patience. 😉

Now you could stop here after that great ink blending, but you could also step it up with the Sip, Sip, Hooray stencil included in the Caffeinated Critters bundle. I laid the stencil down randomly across my rainbow and ink blended the exposed areas with the matching color under the stencil using whatever ink was left on my brush. For example, here I laid the stencil down over the yellow, green & blue so I used those color brushes to run over each area. It adds some depth without distracting from the black stamping on top, plus it reinforces the coffee theme!

Once all my inking was complete, I placed my panel in my Misti stamping tool and stamped out all my critters in my favorite Solid Black Detail ink from Lisa Horton Crafts. I used the dragon and bunny on the ends because they are both looking in toward the center critters and give it a nice, finished feel, without cutting off too much of their bodies.

Lastly I used a punny, pre-printed sentiment from the A2 Blended Sentiments pack, also available from The Rabbit Hole Designs, and cut it down to fit my card. I liked the linear balance of the diagonal blending vs the horizontal sentiment. I felt it added some visual interest and tied in the black stamping. Topped it off with a few select embellishments from the A Whole Latte Sparkle pack (fun fact—I named this embellishment pack!!) and boom! Done! 

I would LOVE to see your versions of this simple technique that leaves a WOW factor! Please tag me in your creations and I’d love it if you left me a comment! 🧡🧡

Until next time, I hope you take time to grab some paper and craft something that really makes you smile! 😃 

XO,

Irene Smith

 @artemismade1