I recently picked up a second hand (retired) stamp set called Petite Petals, which came with a coordinating punch. Let me show you how I tried it out.

Stamps that come with a coordinating punch are super easy. It means there is no fussy cutting to cut out your image, you just punch and you are done. I liked the look of the petite petals set as I thought I could use either a bunch of the flowers on one card, or use just one or two as an embellishment here and there.

I also wanted to try out a card layout that I had seen used on pinterest that involved having just a strip of colour down the side of an otherwise white card, so I decided to combine this with trying out the stamp set. As shown above, the stamp set consists of 6 small flowers, all slightly different patterns, but exactly the same size.

To make the coloured strip down the side of the card, I couldn’t decide whether to use sponges, or aqua painters, so I decided to do one of each and compare the results. Aqua painters as basically a marker, but instead of having ink in the barrel you fill the barrel with water. You did the end of the marker into some ink and then colour with it – water colouring without the mess of a paint brush and cup of water on your desk.

I picked five colours of ink (which happened to be the 5 Stampin Up 2016-2018 In Colours) and on one piece or card stock I applied them with sponges, and the other with the aqua painters. I think stamped a flower in each of the colours (well actually two in each of the colours since I was now making two cards). Using the punch I was able to quickly punch out the flower. I mounted the colours strip to each of the cards, and then positioned the flowers (in the same colour order as the strip) from top to bottom, adhering using dimensionals. The sentiment on the cards came from the (retired) Happy Harmony set.

The one shown on the left is done using the aqua painter, and the one on the right is the sponge. I think I like the aqua painter better, though it probably doesn’t help that I stuck the colour panel on crooked on the sponged one (and my trimmer blades were quite blunt for the bottom part is a bit squished!). But anyway….these things happen. Which is your favourite?