Special Day Tulips

Hello, and welcome.  A couple of challenges this week feature yellow, and I love yellow, especially paired with blue and white, so thought I would make a card using the colors yellow, white, and blue for the challenges.
 
I just love the bright and cheery combination of these colors.  And tulips.  And butterflies.  And white swirly things.  You get the idea here!

I used all Penny Black stamps, and a Penny Black stencil and die.  Stamps are:  40-437 Flower Gala (tulips), 30-105 Gratitude (verse), and 30-013 Critter Party (butterflies).  The stencil is 25-019 Leaf Frolic, and the die is 51-035 Dots & Swirls.  I did use an Our Daily Bread Designs stitched rectangle die to cut the image panel.

I stamped the tulips and verse onto Strathmore bristol vellum with Tuxedo black Memento ink, then colored it with Copic markers.  I created a mask for the tulips, then used a Clarity stencil brush to brush on some Tim Holtz distress ink in tumbled glass.  I also brushed some color with the leaf frolic stencil for the background.  

To bring in more white, I added the swirls die along the left edge.  I also stamped and colored some itty-bitty butterflies and added them to balance things a little and add some interest and movement. 

I used craft foam to give the panel dimension.  Some baker's twine with yellow and white swirls and some yellow enamel accents finish off the card. 

I am adding my card to these challenges:

The Card Concept - Spring has sprung

Time Out Challenges - Picture inspiration 

 
Allsorts Challenge - New beginnings (birthday)

Cards In Envy  - No patterned paper

Mod Squad Challenge - Spring theme

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything goes


The sun is shining today!  It's a glorious day!  The temperature is still on the cool side for this time of year, but spring is definitely coming.  The geese are trumpeting their way back, and my crocuses, daffodils, hostas, and other plants are peeking up through the ground to check things out.  I think it may be time for another walk with the grand-dog (we're dog sitting this week).  We an soak up more of that wonderful sunshine!

Thank you for stopping in today.  I wanted to get this post up today, so I can be internet free tomorrow to enjoy Easter Sunday and really focus on family, friends, and the Lord.

Blessings,

Watercolor Tulip Stencil Blessings

I was excited to see the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog.  This week's Wednesday challenge is to use stencils on your projects.  You can check out the challenge and cards HERE .   I am entering this card.  I love stretching my card-making supplies by using stencils, as well as stamps, to create my art.  

I had ordered this tulip stencil online, and didn't realize it was 12 x 9 inches!  I tucked it away, figuring it was much too large for a card, but could use it some time for a scrapbook page, or a bookmaking or journaling project.  As I was flipping through my stencil stock, there it was.  I thought, why not try it to see what I could do.  This is the result....

I used just a small portion of the stencil, focusing in on only three of the tulips.  I sponged Tim Holtz distress inks through the stencil on 140# cold pressed watercolor paper. Colors used:  started with spun sugar, then added some worn lipstick, and finally festive berries for the tulips.  The stems are bundled sage and peeled paint.  After sponging the color on, I then rubbed some ink on my craft mat, and with a watercolor brush, just brushed some extra color on for more defined shading.  I dried the petals with my heat tool before moving on to the background.  I did the background with the bundled sage and peeled paint, wetting the paper first with just water, then adding the greens, drying between applications.  Finally, I spattered plain water on the completed panel, which caused the water spots. 

The Blessings die is from Simon Says Stamp.  The whole die says Christmas Blessings, but I just used the blessings portion.  Again, stretching our tools!  I layered three die cuts on top of each other.  The top layer is a glossy black card stock.  The three black pearls at the upper left corner balances the black, helping frame the flowers.

The panel is layered onto black glossy card stock, then I cut down a foam craft sheet for raising the panel up and giving it dimension.  The card background under the panel was done with the same colors as the card, using the technique described above.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

     lynda

Tulip Card

A quick post tonight to get the second card from Sunday's watercolor fest (see previous post).  I entered this card in the Mojo Monday sketch challenge at http://mojomonday.blogspot.com/2014/03/mojo-monday-337.html .

Here's the sketch....

Here is my card....

I still have lots of the watercolor pieces left, so stop back later in the week and I will post the rest of the cards I make from them.

See you soon!

Blessings,

lynda