Black and White and Sweet Stems all over

Oh man, does it feel great when my hands and my brain are on the same page! I get all buzzed because it happens so seldom. I’ve seen a lot of cards using a quilt-square layout on the forums and blogs lately but nothing came to mind until yesterday. When inspiration struck, it was very specific:

Sweet Stems stamp set
Whisper White, Basic Black and Bermuda Bay card stock
Basic Black Classic ink pad; Whisper White Craft ink pad; Black Stampn’ Write marker
Embossing buddy (a MUST), WHITE embossing powder and heat tool
1 3/8 and 1 1/4 inch square punches; Round tab punch
Corner rounder, white gel pen and Bermuda Bay polka dot grosgrain ribbon

To get that white–on-black look just right, I stamped the image in Craft White and then embossed it with white embossing powder. You have to take your time with this – even with judicious use of the Embossing Buddy, there are a few tiny specs of white embossing powder on that black card stock. I remove those specs with a fine paintbrush, very lightly moistened (OK, I admit it, I lick my finger and twist the fibers together). If you leave just one, when you’ve finished with the heat tool those specs look like bowling balls.

I suppose I could have embossed the black images too, but I was in too big a hurry to see this put together. I think start to finish it was 15 minutes – that’s a record for me!