Red and Black Flourish Monique

Here is my entry for this week's Cupcake Craft Challenge, which specifies a colour challenge of black, grey and one other colour. I have gone for red as the extra colour.

The card I made is for Natalie to accompany a swap we did. I decided to use the Monique stamp from Kraftin' Kimmie - one of my recent purchases.

I started by stamping the edges of the card blank using one of the flourish stamps from the Autumn Leaves Flourish v1 by Rhonna Farrer stamp set with Versafine Onyx Black archival pigment ink. The edges of the card were than distressed using ColorBox Charcoal Fluid Chalk ink.

A panel of the red cabbage rose paper from the Papermania Red Hot Capsule paper pad was also distressed around the edges using the Charcoal ink and matted onto black linen paper.

A length of dark red organza ribbon was then tied in a knot and wrapped around a strip of the black linen paper and matted onto the red patterned paper.

The Monique image was stamped onto white card using Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink and coloured using the Copic sketch markers.

• Hat: R20, R24, R29, N1, N3, N5, N7
• Hair: N1, N3, R29
• Skin: E00, E02, E21
• Eyes: N1
• Dress: R24, R29, N1, N3, N5
• Shoes: R24, R29
• Cane: N1, N3, N5, R24, R29

I was really pleased with the way I got the colour shading on the hat, but not so much with the red tips of the hair - it was harder to get the gradation of colour there.

The flourish stamp used on the card blank was then used to stamp a pattern around the image panel using the Onyx Black ink. This panel was then matted onto red card and the black linen paper.

The circle sentiment, from Aud Designs, was stamped using the Tuxedo Black ink, cut out using the circle Nestabilities die and coloured using the Copic markers.

• Sentiment: N1, N3, N5

This was matted onto circles of red card and black paper also cut out using the Nestabilities. A small circle of the red patterned paper was cut using the Nestabilities was added to the centre of the sentiment and a length of the red ribbon was tied through the centre and adhered over the bottom corner of the image panel.

As an added embellishment, and to add a touch of sparkle, black Glitterations circles from Anita's were added in the corners of the red patterned paper panel.

I also decorated the inside of the card, using the red patterned paper and a sentiment panel again stamped with the flourish stamp and a sentiment stamp from the Hero Arts Anytime Messages stamp set, both stamped using the Onyx Black ink. The black Glitterations stickers were again added in the corners of the red patterned paper.