Craft day, hooray!

It's here.  Summer holidays are here.  So Britain has been doing what Britain does in the summer holidays.  Rain.  So for the last few days, my little one has been stuck inside, finding many different ways of entertaining himself, with various degrees of messiness that make my craft room look like... well.. tidy.  Fortunately. for him, during reception he has made some very good friends, and he went to play at one of their houses today.  For eight hours!!

So naturally I crafted. Instead of housework.  Of course!

I'm still feeling very excited by this months Trimcraft stamping competition, so I went out the other week to see what extra stamps I could find, just to boost my collection.  Sadly not many - but I did come across a Sheena Douglass collection -  A little bit scenic Silhouette Garden.

So I bought it.

Then I discovered the problem that occurs when you go too stamp happy...  it sort of looks more arty than cardy, but nevermind!! I had fun anyway!

Haha see what I mean?  Talk about making a lot of work for myself!!  I'm not very good at cutting out things, although I did learn a handy tip which is to turn the card you are cutting as opposed to the scissors, which did make things a lot easier!

I'm not even sure where to start with this!  I stamped onto spare card because my images didn't always work first time - I think I'll try out various tips I have come across when researching how to get the perfect image and find what works for me!  Then I layered up the image..and layered.. and layered!  It was mostly made using distress inks, spectrum noir aqua markers and Versacolour stamps.

Now the second card I made sure was a lot easier for myself.  The lovely thing about stamping is that you can use a lot of the stamps to make your own unique background paper, bringing a very personal touch to your creations.

So..
Firstly I stamped the smaller of the two floral images all over the page.  I didn't always reink between stamps, that way you can get a faded look to some of the images.  The ink I chose for this was the VersaColour Lavender.
Using a fine paint brush, I stamped some distress ink Mowed lawn onto my rubber mat, and painted in the stem details.
I then stamped the Dusty Concord distress ink onto my rubber mat, to add shadows to the flowers.  For the lighter stamped images, I added more water to the inks.
Once dry, ink the edges of the paper with the Dusty Concord.  Stamp plenty of this ink onto the rubber mat, and then using a very wet brush - or a self watering brush, apply lots of ink around the edges, and then start to bleed the colour in

until it is very faint towards the middle, taking care to leave a border around the edge of each flower.

I layered the background paper onto lilac paper and green cardstock.  I stamped two larger flowers and coloured them in in the same way as I had done the smaller ones, and cut them out.  I wrapped ribbon around the card and attached the flowers.  I stamped the statement onto lilac paper and layered on green card, and placed above the two flowers.  I decorated the corners with some green gems (sometimes, I'll use some pens designed to colour in stickers to colour clear gem, this is a handy way of getting a variety of colours from buying just a clear gem pack). Once complete, I layered the entire set onto card stock.  Voila!  A much easier card to make!

Now I suppose I ought to go get ready for bed.  I think I'll avoid looking into the craft room for the time being!!  

Hope you all have a lovely rest of day!  Thank you for popping in!

Sara

The Heavy Handed Crafter