Nature's Best

Hi all.  I have another card for a female birthday and using another gelli plate background which was intended to feature grasses picked whilst on a recent walk, but I think by the time I had arranged them on the plate over a layer of paint, it was a bit dry and only picked up the shape of a couple of the seed heads, so I ended up aborting that and just added a little blue and yellow ink in certain areas over the top and decided to add one of the wild flowers from a set by Art Journey called Nature Flowers, and also a couple of images from a set called Grasses, and also a couple of little bees from a set by Chocolate Baroque called Honey Bee.  The three images on the white layer were a little bird given as one of five little freebie stamps when I bought a Crafty Individuals stamp recently , and also another larger bee from the Honey Bee Chocolate Baroque set and a small maple leaf from another of their sets Nature 1.

I started by cutting the circle from a piece of white card approximate 5 1/2" and the circle approimately 4", large enough to accommodate the little scene but leaving a reasonable border all round.  I did cut it so that there was a bit more space at the bottom for the sentiment across the bottom right corner.  I stamped the two Queen Anne's Lace flowers (otherwise known as Cow Parsley) a little way up from the bottom of the gelli plate piece and I just kept putting the circle over the top so I could see if they looked to be in the right place.  Once I had done this I added the grasses using a couple of the stamps below and around the flowers, and I did use a Black Micron Pen to extend one of the flowers stems.  I finished by added the branches which also come from the same set and made sure that I placed them to fit around the circle, and finally the sweet little bees..all this was stamped using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink.  I then stamped the extra little images on the white layer around the circle and added a sentiment which was from a set of stamps which came with a magazine..a Creative Stamping one from a few month's ago I think.  I decided for these images to use a Versafine Smokey Gray Ink as I thought it would be a little softer, but to be honest don't think it made a lot of difference. 

Thank you for your visit today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge - No. 51 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff (Both bee images and the little bird are all NBUS items).
We Love Stamping June Challenge - CAS/Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations June Challenge - Around the World/Anything Goes.
Allsorts Challenge - Week 734 Bunch of Flowers/Anything Goes.
Happy Little Stampers June Birthday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Try it on Tuesday Challenge - Summer Blooms

Triangular Floral

Hi everybody.  I needed another quick card for a birthday girl and thought I would use the technique highlighted this month over at the  Group of Seven Cardmakers which is ink blending on coloured card.  I used a stamp which came as part of a box set by Sheena Douglass..actually her first.

I found a piece of pink card and cut it to fit a 7" x 5" white card.  I stamped the lilies and a sentiment from the set with Versamark and heat embossed using WOW Silver Metallic Embossing Powder and then got out a couple of Distress Inks - Picked Raspberry and Dusty Concord, and using a blending brush I began with the pink and gradually built up the colour around the edge and in towards the flowers, and then built up more colour around the edge with the purple.  I then did some splattering with water, not too dramatically, but it does show up quite well, and I attached it to the card...done!

As I said a quickish card with a technique which works well particularly with an embossed image.  I was tempted to add a little of the pink and purple on the flowers but decided to leave as is and let the inking and spattering be the main feature of the card.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope you'll visit me again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:-

Allsorts Challenge - Week 733 - Blooms, Bees and/or Butterflies/Anything Goes.
We Love Stamping June Challenge - CAS/Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations June Challenge - Around the World/Anything Goes.
The Flower Challenge - No. 81 Use Your Favourite Flower.

Perching Kingfisher

Hi everyone.  I have been a bit busy with things recently which have kept me from my cardmaking rather, but I suddenly realised that I needed a card for a female relative, and decided to use a gelli plate background which I made recently and a NBUS Kingfisher image which came free with a few other little offcut stamps with another stamp I bought recently from Crafty Individuals, as did the Wild Flowers and Ferns stamp which I used here which was a special offer with the order.  

 

                                
I made this gelli print background using acrylics and some grasses and cow parsley but it didn't work at all well, and the darker areas were what was left of the outline of the flowers and I ended up using some more green paint over the top to see if that looked more usuable, and that was how it was left.  I stamped the kingfisher and coloured using my Inktense Pencils without any water, and then added the wild flowers to either side, and as their were some white patches I added some more green, blue and yellow pencil in places but decided that I would get a better finish using some Distress Inks and so I used Twisted Citron in the centre and darkened the edges with Lucky Clover.  I finished by adding the sentiment using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.

This was a quick card but I was quite happy with the way it eventually turned out, and a definite improvement on the initial look of my failed print..lol.  Thank you for visiting me here today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge - No. 51 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff. 
Allsorts Challenge - No. 732 Birthdays/Anything Goes.
We Love Stamping June Challenge - CAS/Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations June Challenge - Around the World/Anything Goes.
Happy Little Stampers June Birthday Challenge - Anything Goes.
Triple B June Challenge - Anything Goes - Birds, Butterflies and Blooms (at least one of the three).