Hi peeps. Vera here today. Can you believe we’re already in March? Am looking forward to seeing all the flowers blooming with prettier weather coming soon. Anyway, I recently went through my stamp stash and I realize there are certain companies whose stamps I keep the most because I just love their designs. Well, turned out one of them is The Ton. The good thing of doing this every now & then, it makes me realize that I should show some love to the older sets. So, that’s what I did.

For both of my cards today, I used the same background. I already finished the card when I realized that this background set is no longer available, but basically you could use any of the pretty background set that The Ton offers like Blooming Peony Garden or Cherry Blossom Garden.

For the background I used the gel press technique. I basically dab some ink on the gel mat (I used Hollywood Star, Lemon Drop, Soft Garden & Caribbean Turquoise) and then use a roller to blend in the ink. Yes, some of the ink will over lap as you roll the roller over the gel mat and that’s okay as long as you love the result. Actually on my first attempt, I rolled the roller too much and I didn’t love the result, so I simply re-do it and wipe my roller on paper towel after running the roller between colors.

Once I finished blending the color with a roller, I laid the background stamp on the gel mat. Carefully lifted the stamp. The stamp is picking up all the colors from the gel mat. I laid a cardstock panel on the stamp, put a piece of paper towel and gently press the panel on the stamp. The result is the left panel below. Then, I took another piece of cardstock panel and laid it directly on the gel mat and the result is the right panel below.

For the left panel, I could leave it the way it is and just add sentiment. But, I wanted to use it as background. As shown on the first card above, I stamped the flower from Noteworthy Blooms set and die cut it using Noteworthy Blooms coordinating die. Trim a little bit and adhere to card. Finished by stamping a sentiment from the same set.

Next, I work on the second panel. I stamped the flowers from Coming Up Daisies and die cut it with Coming Up Daisies coordinating die. Finished by stamping one of the sentiment that came with the set.

I love using the gel press technique as I could use the positive and negative parts. And, there’s something that’s eye catching in my opinion, having black and white flowers against the colorful background. Have you give the gel press technique a try? If you haven’t, I hope my cards today would inspire you to give it a try. Well peeps, that’s all from me today. I hope you enjoy today’s cards and may your day be a good one.