Yesterday my quarantine was given a lift with a delivery from Stampin’ Up! I didn’t order a huge amount, but I knew I’d welcome something new to play with. One of the stamp sets that caught my eye was After The Storm. It’s a fairly simple set with storm cloud images, sun rays and two tiny flying bird images. The four sentiments in the set are great for supportive thinking of you type cards. Today though I used the stamp set to create an inspirational bookmark.

STORM CLOUDS

I began by cutting a 2″ x 5-1/2″ piece of Thick Very Vanilla Card for my bookmark base. Then I tore a scrap piece of card to create a mask with a gently sloping section. With that done I was ready to create the scene part of the bookmark.

While holding the mask about 1/3 of the way up the bookmark I began adding layers of Soft Succulent ink using a Blending Brush. Then I tilted the mask a little and carried on inking to create another hill. I moved the further down and changed to an Evening Evergreen ink pad to create the remaining two hills.

Now I needed to add the dark night sky and began with Misty Moonlight ink. Once I’d covered the sky area I went over it again with Night of Navy ink. I added quite a lot of ink in fact, especially towards the top. This prompted me to use my Heat Tool set on 1 (low) to dry off the surface of the bookmark.

Finally using Night of Navy ink I stamped the two cloud stamps from the After The Storm Stamp Set. These were subtle, but perfect for a dark night sky. Finally, just to be sure, I used the Heat Tool again so I could be certain all the ink was completely dry.

DARKEST NIGHT

Now I was ready for my sentiment “Even the darkest night will pass & the sun will rise”.

Using VersaMark ink I stamped the sentiment towards the bottom of the bookmark. Then I sprinkled the sticky ink with white embossing powder from the Basics Stampin’ Emboss Powders pack. After tapping off the excess powder, I removed a few stray specks and then melted the rest using my Heat Tool set on 2 (high).

At this point I decided that even through it was ‘darkest night’ a few teeny tiny stars wouldn’t go amiss. So I took one of my Water Painters filled with clear water and tapped it against the handle of my Blending Brush. As they dried, the tiny splashes of water ‘bleached’ the inked areas just enough to give a hint of stars.

With the scene finished, I shaped the top of the bookmark and added the ribbon slot using the Fancy Tag Topper Punch. Then I threaded some Evening Evergreen 3/8″ Chevron Weave Ribbon through the slot. Finally, using a Mini Glue Dot on each side, I secured the ribbon above the slot and my inspirational bookmark was complete.

I must say this turned out even better than I’d hoped. The dark clouds add a touch of interest to the sky while the white sentiment really stands out against the background. What do you think?

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