CAS Crocuses

Hi there all.  I  got out some Chocolate Baroque stamps called Spring Bird Crocus which I bought last year to use for Springtime cards and as the last couple of days have been lovely and bright, if rather cold, it does begin to seem a bit more Springlike, and as there is a family birthday coming up I decided to use the Crocuses.

 
I also decided to do the Happy Little Stampers February CAS Challenge which has asked that we use our embossing folders to stamp with.  This entails inking up the front piece of the folder and spritzing a little with water, and then with the folder layed flat placing the piece of card over it and rubbing it to transfer the ink to the card.  I used a Cuttlebug folder called Divine Swirl which sadly doesn't seem to be available now, and two colours of Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass and Mowed Lawn and just inked the central part of the folder so that the pattern faded out and didn't entirely cover the snippet of white card.

I then stamped the Crocus image on to another snippet of white card using Versafine Smokey Gray ink and coloured with Distress Inks using a water brush.  I used Mustard Seed on the flowers and for the shadows I added a bit of Seedless Preserves, and then Mowed Lawn for the leaves and for the stems and outer leaf casings I added a little Walnut Stain.  I then created a little background with some Tumbled Glass and Walnut Stain to ground the plant.

I finished by rounding the corners on the topper and used a My Favourite Things Basic Stitch Lines die which puts a decorative pattern on the edge of a piece of card.  In this case I chose the pierced design.  It is a bit fiddly but you can repeat the pattern round the edge of a square or rectangle by lining it up a little in from the edge and making sure you place the other end of the die over the edge of the plates on your die cutting machine so that the pattern doesn't go right to the edge of the card, and then repeating this round all four sides.  I placed the pattern a little farther in from the edge than I would have liked so I trimmed a little from each of the edges.  

I then added a sentiment using the Versafine Smokey Gray ink.  I put the card together and adhered the background layer and then gave the topper some dimension by raising it up on foam tape.

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

Pat  x

I also wish to enter the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 217 where we use up our snippets of paper and card etc.
Casology - Distress.  I used Distress Inks so this is my take on the challenge.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.           
Simon Says Work it Wednesday Challenge - February.


Stamplorations CAS Card Challenge - February.




So delighted to be chosen as one of the favourites of the Happy Little Stampers February CAS Challenge.