ombre builders is one of my favorite graphic element sets, with so many possibilities for adding color and pattern to cards. as the name suggests, it's perfect for building ombre patterns with colors blending together. so since I found myself in the mood for a rainbow, i decided on a "full spectrum ombre" for this week's papertrey ink throwback thursday. I'm a sucker for a rainbow card!
to create my blended rainbow, i stamped the paint splatted strip in the six basic rainbow colors, papertrey ink style, on watercolor paper: pure poppy, orange zest, bright buttercup, new leaf, blueberry sky, amethyst allure. while i let the layers touch a little, i did not overlap them all the way. i wanted more of a soft blended look, so i simply sprayed the watercolor paper with water when i was done and let the paper and water do the work. then i sped up the drying process with the heat gun and added a little interest to the panel with mix & mat: confetti. after trimming around the birthday streamer frame, i decided to add another detail by backing the panel with sticker paper, sticky side out and filling the confetti holes with glitter.
i had spent so much time on the rainbow and making the perfect mat, that i had a little trouble when it came to the sentiment. nothing seemed quite right! finally, i found the exact sentiment that i didn't know i was searching so hard for, but it was too wide to fit on my panel without covering up colors in an awkward way. after trying way too many other ideas that simply weren't working, i spied the ink it in: notebook die cut pushed off to the side of my desk and a lightbulb went off - cut it into pieces and create a ransom-style sentiment! i used to love to do these when the sentiment didn't quite fit right or just as a fun design element. i added in the ampersand from ink it in: quoted along with a few doodles to fill the empty spaces and it worked! a rainbow, a little sparkle, and the perfect sentiment. it didn't come together as quickly as i hoped when i sat down, but it came together in the end and i had fun figuring it out - and ombre builder was the easiest part of the whole thing!
if you haven't already, be sure to check out a couple more throwback looks by heather and melissa, both linked on the papertrey ink blog...
happy stamping!
:) lexi
