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Friday 27 March 2015

Welcome Spring

Hi there.  I made this card for a lovely lady and a good friend whose birthday was this week and decided that as we are now officially in Spring I would use these new stamps which I bought recently from Chocolate Baroque which include these pretty Daffodils and a sweet bird on a flowery branch.


I started by smooshing the background - what a lovely word - which basically means putting ink down on a piece of acrylic sheet, spritzing with water, and then laying your card on top to transfer the ink, drying with a heat tool,  and continuing in this way until the desired coverage is achieved.  I used a snippet of white card and Distress Inks in Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass, Mustard Seed and Shaded Lilac.

I stamped the bird on the branch and then the Daffodils stamped and masked several times to fill the space.  In order to get the flowers as close as possible to the bird image I placed a piece of paper over the nearest branch so I wouldn't stamp over it.  With rubber stamps there is a certain amount of guesswork and I inadvertently cut off the edge, but with the use of my Spectrum Noir pencils with which I coloured the images I made the edges look fuzzy and faded into the distance which luckily worked quite well.  I have the Primary and Essentials sets and I love these as they are quite waxy and work well over a watercoloured background.  I did try to make the background colours tie in with the colours I would be using for the images and tried not to make the background too dark.

I have some Tsukineko cling mount (Di from Pixie's Playground has kindly told me it is called Tack n Peel) which works like cling for rubber stamps and sticks permanently to a large acrylic block and means you don't have to mount every stamp.  It has worked well but it has got discoloured with the inks which have gradually built up so it is getting difficult to see through it for placement, and although I wash it regularly stamps don't cling as well anymore.  Anyway the inevitable happened and a couple of times the stamp fell off as I was stamping so I covered the bad bits with little flowers over the top using some snippets of white card.  The air was a little blue but I got there in the end, so note to self GET IT SORTED!!

Finally I mounted it on to two different snippety offcuts of green card and then mounted that on a square white card.  The sentiment is a Britannia Die.

Thank you to everyone who stops to take a look, I really do appreciate your interest.

Pat  x

Darnell at djkardcreations has a new NBUS (never before used schtuff) challenge, and she has been very generous in offering five $25 vouchers for any US company of the winner's choice.  Congratulations on having over 800 followers Darnell. 
   
                                                   
The other challenges I wish to enter are:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 169.  Where we use up our snippets of paper, card etc.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
The Artistic Stamper - Spring is Coming.


16 comments:

Mrs A. said...

Well worth all the effort . Card is lovely. I like the colours you have used on the background. Hugs Mrs A.

Di said...

Absolutely beautiful work Pat! I use that cling stuff too BTW - Tack 'n Peel 'tis the name. AND, I have a spare sheet here - just let me know if you'd like me to pop it in the post to you. I have your snail mail addy .

Hugs

Di xx

Jacee said...

A very colourful pretty card Pat, lovely!
hugs Jacee
Simply Paper Card Design

JD/ Jill said...

Pretty "spring" card!

MaryH said...

Beautiful! Loving your smooshing and great colors on the background. The stamped images look so marvelous too, and your perspective with the daffodil bouquet and the pretty bluebird looked just perfect to me! Your fade-in worked so well to accomplish what you intended. My Tack n Peel got messy over time as well, and then I had to hunt for some more of it. I found that washing it took off the 'sticky'. Wondered if the product Aleene's stick it over &over would work with it...supposed to make post-its if it's used. I forget t try that though! I keep one block with that TnP on it and try to remember not to set something atop it. Happy wkend, and TFS such a beautiful card. Really does make me think Spring blossoms and songbirds.

Jean Straw said...

A pretty springtime card Pat, I like your background, and the lovely CB stamps.
Jean x

Loll said...

I have to tell you that even though this was a challenge, you ended up with a spectacular card. So beautiful Pat ... and a wonderful keepsake for your friend.. xx

maria's knutselplezier said...

Wow Pat this is an amazing card , brilliant colours , great image, a real masterpiece , I love it!!!

Greetings
Maria

Darnell said...

Sorry to say, but I was chuckling about the air being blue, Pat! You know I can relate to that! But you know what? Those little layered snippets flowers add a ton of dimension to your beautiful spring garden scene, so it was one of those "happy accidents" in the end! And, BTW, awesome job of smooshing, too!! Thank you so much for supporting and playing in my NBUS Challenge #4!! Hugs, Darnell

Liz said...

A lovely spring card, Pat. I love the word 'smooshing', it's resulted in a beautiful background on your card. I think I need to try and do a bit of smooshing! xx

Jennie -The Artistic Stamper said...

Lovely! Thank you for joining in The Artistic Stamper Challenge

Paper Creations by Shirley said...

Beautiful design Pat, great work with masking, the daffodils looks fantastic with the bird. The Spring birds are lovely aren't they? Take good care, Shirleyxx

scrappymo! said...

Lovely card (as always), Pat! Love your inky background and the new stamps are really pretty. Good luck in the prize draw at Darnell's.

Don't you worry about Rudolph Days...it is there every month and if you make it over a few times, well that is fine. We all understand what it is like to balance family, life itself and friends with our crafting time. Wehn DH had his heart attack, it was all I could do to be with him.
He had many scares with his health in his lifetime (cancer) and so I totally understand what it is like to feel swamped!

Crafty hugs, my friend!

Mandy said...

Gorgeous card Pat! The stamps are so elegant and beautifully coloured.
Thanks for joining us at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Hugs
Mandy xx

Bonnie said...

What a beautiful bird and flower garden, Pat!

Heather T said...

I love all the spring beauty you have captured here.