It’s a colour challenge at Less is More for the next fortnight and the chosen theme is ‘shades of purple’. I had three goes at picking out the colours – it’s curious how when you put some colours together they show up different hues in adjacent colours that you didn’t notice before (and weren’t purple). One technique, in particular, showed this up perfectly (read below). Anyhoo, here’s my take on the challenge and two bonus cards…

Used in this card

• Inky Doodles clear stamp set: Country Checks
• Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Shaded Lilac / Milled Lavender / Dusty Concord / Wilted Violet
• Sentiment from a Craftwork Cards clear stamp set
• Bazzill cardstock for matting my ATC

The Inky Doodle stamps have three main pattern stamps which layer to build the final pattern, enabling different colours to be used. Smaller stamps are for further embellishment. This is a second set (Print Backgrounds 2) using the same kit as above:

My final card uses a technique that I came across some time ago, but I’ve forgotten the source. It only works using Distress Oxides – apply the ink to a craft sheet, spritz with water and then lay down a sheet of photo paper (glossy works best). Lift off the paper, briefly dry and then wipe off the pigment layer using a damp wipe. You should end up with a marbled finish from the dye element of the ink. I tried several of my ‘purples’. Some are clearly made up of various hues of red in the dye element with a blue pigment layer (red+blue=purple) which led to some pink/red marbling. I eventually found that Shaded Lilac Distress Oxide kept true to expectations:

The background to the sentiment is the result of the above technique, overstamped with Darkroom Door ‘Brushed Sentiment’ in Majestic Violet Archival Ink. The card looked a little bare, so I’ve stamped the flower border… I’m not sure it works though.