Floral Thoughts Mini Series 5 | ft. Lawn Fawn "Our Friendship Grows"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

Today I'm using an older stamp set, in fact it is one of the very first Lawn Fawn sets I ever purchased, and by far the one I use the most; "Our Friendship Grows".

I honestly cannot say enough about this set. I love the sizes of the flowers, the different builder pieces and vases, and how easy they are to colour in whichever medium you feel like using. It's a win-win-win!

I used the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers (SURPRISE!!) along with some no line watercolouring for an organic artsy look.

I wasn't sure what kind of card this was going to be when I originally sat down. I just wanted to paint something cheerful, and even though sunflowers aren't my favourite type of flower, I feel they are the happiest.

To begin, I stamped the images using Antique Linen Distress Ink, the large flower and leaves are from Lawn Fawn's "Our Friendship Grows" stamp set, the smaller blossoms and leaves are from the "Happy Harvest" stamp set, stamped on 140lb cold press watercolour paper.

I coloured the images using the Zig markers in two shades for each colour, except for the brown which was just a more concentrated secondary application of the same shade.

The greeting from Clearly Besotted is stamped with CTMH Archival Black ink, I chose this ink because it is super intense as well as waterproof, just in case there was an oops. You never know, and it is better to be safe than it is to be sorry.

I used light gray on the lower edge of the image and pulled it out with clean water to create a faded shadow. I used my clear Wink of Stella on the petals, but sadly the camera simply refuses to pick it up. But it is there. I promise!

Finally to finish off the panel, I adhered a few clear shimmering sequins down just so that the white space wasn't so white.

I then mounted the panel on foam tape and adhered that to a standard A2 sized greeting card.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own.

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Add Some Shimmer

Floral Thoughts Mini Series 4 | ft. Clearly Besotted Merci Beaucoup

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

It's been a pretty not awesome week for me, May 30th would have been my Father's Birthday so that was a very difficult day. It's been just over a year since he passed away, everyone kept telling me things would get better after the first year. So imagine my surprise and extreme disappointment when that wasn't the case.

I wanted to create a card that expressed my love for him and the sadness that still hangs over us regarding his passing. I still think about him every day and every day my heart breaks.

To begin, I stamped the large rose from Clearly Besotted's "Merci Beaucoup" stamp set with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Copic friendly paper, and then again on 2" post it tape to create a mask.

I masked the image off, and sponged Hickory Smoke Distress Ink around the the image fading out towards the right side.

Once that was completely dry, I prepped the panel using my powder tool, and pressed Versa Mark ink through the Simon Says Stamp "Falling Hearts" stencil and heat embossed the hearts using gold embossing powder.

I removed the mask and coloured the rose in with Copic markers, using two shades of green for the leaves and stem, 3 shades of red for the blossoms and two shades of warm grey for the shadowing.

The blossoms are covered with clear Wink of Stella to create a shine, but once again the camera fails to do justice to the amount of shimmer that pen gives. In real life it is incredibly sparkly.

Finally, I cut a 3/4" strip of vellum and used the same gold embossing powder to make the greeting. I was originally going to leave this card without a greeting, but the shadowing under the lower leaves got a little thicker than I liked; instead of scraping the card after all that work, I figured I'd cover it up. There really is always a way to fix a little problem.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own.

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Mask It

Floral Thoughts Mini Series 3 | ft. Clearly Besotted "Fresh Flowers"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

Today I have a couple new-to-me things going on in the card. An image I've never used before and a technique I am still learning and playing around with.

I have another "Thinking of You" card today, which I'm sure comes as no surprise. At the moment these are my favourite cards to create, perhaps because they are so versatile. This was also the first time I pulled out the bluebells image from Clearly Besotted (I assume they are bluebells. That's the way I see them.) I felt they would work perfectly for this week's Fusion Challenge.

Since learning the shadowing technique (I'll create a post about it later), I have been trying to incorporate it more and more into my colouring, especially with florals. I absolutely love single layer cards that look as though there are multiple layers.

To begin, I stamped the bluebell image from Clearly Besotted's Fresh Flowers stamp set on to Copic friendly paper using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

I masked off the image and sponged Tumbled Glass Distress Ink through a damask stencil starting in the upper left corner and pulling the ink lightly down towards the bottom right.

I removed the mask and then coloured the image with Copic markers, because these flowers are smaller than many of the other images by Clearly Besotted, I only used two shades of blue and two shades of green for the flower.

I then used a W5 and went around the image where the shadows would lay if my light source were in the upper left corner of the panel. I used a very light hand for this, as the W5 marker is rather dark and I wanted to keep my shadows thin. I went over the shadow area again with the W3 marker, making the line just a touch thicker.

I covered the blossoms quite liberally with clear Wink of Stella, but once again my camera has failed to do justice to the amount of shine this pen gives off.

The greeting is also stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, to ensure that I didn't have different shades across the panel.

I then mounted the panel on a piece of soft blue card stock and wrapped them with the twine.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own.

This card is for:

Fusion Card Challenge: Something Blue

Mother's Day 2016 Series - Card 11

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

You may remember this image from the Apple Blossom Birthday post from a while ago, I have a slightly different take on it for today's card. I can honestly say Clearly Besotted is fast becoming my favourite floral stamp company.

I went with softer colours today to show a much more delicate side of the Zig Markers (surprise! using them again).

To create this card, I began by prepping the watercolour panel with my powder tool and heat embossing the floral image in white embossing powder. I wet each of the areas and dropped in colour from the markers to create an incredibly soft look.

To create the halo around the image, I wet the area in sections and dropped in Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.

The greeting banner is heat embossed with gold on a strip of vellum. To finish off the panel I used a scattering of pearls.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own.

Mother's Day 2016 Series - Card 10 | ft. Clearly Besotted Stamps

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

The inspiration provided by Michele Ferguson (you can see her card at the bottom of the post) was wonderful. I love the potted flowers, and after I started I just couldn't stop. If one is good, then three must be better, right?

Moreover, I can't seem to get enough of either the florals by Clearly Besotted or the Zig Markers. They blend so amazingly, and the colour they give off when mixed with water is beyond anything I could have imagined when I first read about them.

If you haven't tried them out, I highly recommend picking up a couple. Unlike Copics (also wonderful) you can get various shades with just one marker.

To create this card, I began by stamping the vases from Lawn Fawn's "Our Friendship Grows" stamp set. I then masked them off and stamped each of the floral images from Clearly Besotted's "Miniature Florals Collection" using CTMH Archival Black Ink on 140lb cold press watercolour paper.

I coloured them with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. I forgot to write the colours I used down. Sorry, guys!

I stamped the greeting using the Archival ink as well, to ensure that the blacks matched. I mounted the panel on a standard A2 sized card base using super sticky tape.

To finish it off, I added clear Wink of Stella to the petals of the flowers. Unfortunately, the picture didn't pick it up. But in real life, it is SUPER shiny.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own.

This card is for:

Muse Challenge #164

Inspired by Michele Ferguson's Beautiful Card:

Mother's Day 2016 Series - Card 5

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

I love this fuchsia image from Clearly Besotted so much that I just had to create another card. I wanted to make it a bit different, so I decided to no-line watercolour the image. This technique makes the image appear as though it wasn't stamped at all, and gives a softer look than stamping with a darker ink.

To create today's card, I began by stamping the floral image using Antique Linen Distress ink on 140lb cold press watercolour paper. I then used Distress inks to watercolour the image, and used Tumbled Glass to create a halo around the image.

I then stamped the greeting using Golden Glitz Delicata ink.

I adhered the panel down using strong two-way tape on a standard A2 size card base. I was a little unhappy about the white space and added a scattering of sequins to add interest and fill it up a bit.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own.

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

Easter Series 2016 - Card 5

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are all having a great day.

Welcome to the fifth installment of my 2016 Easter Series. This card is an example of having an idea and then creativity taking it in a different direction. While I have read that other bloggers find that frustrating, I rather enjoy the process. For me it is like getting in my car planning on going to a particular destination, getting distracted and ending up somewhere completely different.

To create this card I began by die cutting three rectangles out of Copic friendly paper and stamping this tulip from Clearly Besotted Miniature Florals Collection. I coloured them in with Copics and set them aside.

Originally I wanted the panels to be white on white, but it just didn't look right to me. I didn't want to have a greeting on the front of the card, I wanted the tulips to be the star of the show, but it wasn't coming together.

It was then that I cut the lighter patterned paper and adhered the tulip pieces to it. I used foam tape on the back and adhered it to the card base.

It was at this point that I decided I didn't like how much white space there was above and below the piece. But as it was already adhered down, what was I to do?

I grabbed the darker pattern paper and cut two 1/4" strips and tucked them under the panel to make a layerd look.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own.

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: A Bit O' Green

Showcasing Clearly Besotted Products