Hello crafty friends. I have a selection of three cards for you today that all use rainbows and Paper Rose Studio products.

I have used the rainbow pattern in three ways – as the focal point, as a background, and as the sentiment.

Firstly, I used a rainbow of distress inks to blend a piece of cardstock. I then cut the solid butterfly from the Dainty Butterfly Small dies out of the rainbow cardstock, choosing places that would give me different coloured butterflies. The lacy butterflies I cut from the same die set in black. The background is actually a piece of ink smooshed watercolour paper that I had left over from another project! I layered this up with foam tape. Finally I cut the sentiment using the small Thank You die.

For my next projects, I ink blended another piece of card stock, but this time I used the Quatrefoil Layer dies and only primary colours. I was careful to overlap my colours to give the shades in between too, so that I have both orange and purple on my background. Here are the steps:

1. Blend the three shades VERY LIGHTLY onto the card. I used blending brushes for this, because with a blending tool in my hand, the blood rushes to my head, and I’m using all my muscles! 2. Here’s the first layer. It doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth as it will be covered by two more layers. 3. Cut Quatrefoil layer 1 from cardstock and layer it over the rainbow card. Then repeat the blending with the same colours, but use a heavier hand, so that this layer is darker. 4. Cut Quatrefoil layer 2 from card, lay it over the card, being very careful to line up the patterns, and repeat the ink blending using a very heavy hand. 5. In the end, I wasn’t happy with the amount of contrast that I had, so I changed the colours for the last layer, as shown in the picture. These richer colours gave me the effect I was looking for.

6. The finished piece, ready to be cut apart.

I then used this piece of rainbow card for my next two cards. Firstly I cut a strip to tuck behind the Native Birds Border die. I love the sunset look that this gave.

The sentiment for this card comes from the Hello Stamp set, which is so versatile.Lastly, I used the same sheet of paper to cut the word Birthday, and also two narrow strips for my final card.

The background for this card was embossed using the same die that I used when I did the inking. A final, thick coat of glossy accents made the sentiment really shine.

I really enjoyed making this trio of cards with their happy colours, and plan to do more in the future.

If you enjoyed these cards and would like to see more, you can visit my Instagram page.

Until next time, happy cardmaking!

Blessings,

Donna

Full disclosure: As a member of the Paper Rose design team, I have a mix of product that has been sent to me, and product that I have purchased. I have included links for you to look at anything you’d like to see in the store, but I don’t receive commission if you use the links. I just think it makes it easier for you.