Quick Cards Cacti, Succulents and Flowers

Hi there everybody.  Once a month over on the Chocolate Baroque Design Team Blog they post some examples of quick cards, and if you would like to see more from some other members of the team please do go and take a look.  Here are my three cards using the Cacti and Succulent sets which were introduced recently.

This first card uses the Scrumptious Succulents and I made a smooshed background using Brushos in turquoise and yellow and then stamped three of the images from this set using Versamark and WOW Opaque Bright White Embossing Powder.  I then coloured using more Brusho powders by dropping a little on to my glass mat and mixing with water before colouring with a waterbrush.  This keeps the colours quite light.  I die cut the sentiment mat and added a sentiment from Blossom and Grow using Versafine Smokey Gray ink.

This second card uses the Captivating Cacti stamp.  I made a background using glossy card and three colours of alcohol inks, Indigo, Pool and Stonewashed by placing dots of it on to an alcohol ink blending tool, and then added some blending solution to them.  I swiped and dotted the tool over the card and finished up with this mix.  When dry which is almost immediate, I stamped the image in my Misti using Black Archival ink, second generation ink just to give a  light outline.  I allowed a little time to let it dry and then coloured very quickly with more of the alcohol inks with a small brush using Watermelon and Clover, and I think I also added some more Pool, but obviously because they are going over the blues the look of the colours were influenced by that.  I finished the middle of the flower with some Lemonade and I just dropped it straight into the centre to get maximum yellow coverage over the blue.  The Watermelon on the flower became purple because of the underlying blue too.   The original lines had got blurred by the added ink so I re-inked the stamp and placed the card back into the Misti and stamped it again which strengthened the outlines nicely.  When that was dry I added some white gel pen to the body of the cacti and the flower, and also a few of the foreground pebbles.  I finished with a sentiment from the Scrumptious Succulents set stamped with Versafine Majestic Blue ink on to a small spare piece of the background  backed with a piece of parchment die cut using two sizes of a set from The Works.  This was a fast card as you have to work extremely quickly as alcohol inks do not stay wet for long on ordinary glossy card which is different to Yupo paper.

The last card uses the Blossom and Grow set.  I had some alcohol ink left on my blending tool so I added some more blending solution and a little light green called Limeade, and then covered this piece of textured card.  I then dropped more blending solution on to the card which took away some of the colour.  When dry I stamped using Versafine Majestic Blue ink and coloured with my Lyra Aquamarkers.  I decided to leave it without a sentiment for now.

Thank you for taking a look at my blog today and I hope to see you again soon.