Creative Happy Hour: Crazy for Sponges

The theme this week at Heart 2 Heart Challenges it to showcase your favourite tool.

This item right here is my favourite!

Round Sponge

This humble little sponge can do lots of different techniques. I would like to share a few of them with you today.

First up is a great idea to sponge over any embossing to make it stand out. here i have sponged Hollyhock ink over an embossed Cotton candy piece for extra detail.

If you don't have an embossing machine, you can use the resist side of our new Fundamentals Paper Packs to bring out the pattern. Here I have started sponging the Flaxen design with Ruby ink.

The finished product!

Another fun technique with an embossing folder is to run some rock salt through between the cardstock and the B plate (put some wax paper below so that rock salt does not embed into the plate), then sponge over it to create a beaten up effect. You can see on this card that there is some pitting from where the salt has embedded in the cardstock.

One of the easiest ways to use your sponge is to swipe it around the edges of a piece to make it stand out. Here I have swiped my sponge with Chocolate ink and gone around the edge of each green square to make the edges more defined.

Lastly, you can mask off an area and then sponge the pieces you have not covered up. Here I masked all but one strip, and then sponged the exposed area with two different ink colours. I then stamped over it to create a floral border with the feathers and sentiment on top and below the sponged area. Very quick but effective!