sunflower

Hello my friends. It has been a while since my last blog post. However it is not because I wanted to neglect crafting but i've had to as i have been poorly and unable to do much. I've also been stuck in bed and so not able to do much from there as walking was quite painful.

So without further ado onto today's make. I wanted to use the Stampendous sunflower so I started from there. This is a lovely huge stamp that comes with the head and stalk separate hence allowing for more options. I stamped the flower in black archival and clear embossed with detail powder. Then I masked the flower and added the stalk in the same way. I masked this off too and worked on background.

I got out my journaling set from Claritystamp and set to work. I use this set more than any other. I started by brushing antique linen and old paper distress inks all over background with the clarity brushes. Then I started stamping with the script and brushed corduroy di. I did not mount stamp as I wanted a distressed look. I tamped around edges with the burlap stamp and frayed burlap ink. Then i got the water stain stamp and inked randomly with brushed corduroy after blotting the first generation ink. I darkened edges with brushed corduroy and walnut stain.

Then it was time to colour the flower. I got out my spectrum noir pencils and set to work. I started with the lighter colour first and progressed to the darkest. I don't know how many I used but I know I started with the darkest yellow I had and progressed to a burgundy. The centre of the flower was done in the same way with the browns. I also used black in centre. The leaves again got same treatment with the greens. In the end I also added a bit of an air force blue and a grey. I do love these pencils.

They are so soft and creamy. Once I was happy with shading I added shading around flower with brushed corduroy and walnut stain and a make up sponge. Then I mounted it on black card and added ribbon to lower edge with a double bow. To add some quirkiness i added a ladybird to the centre of the bow. Then I mounted the whole lot onto kraft card. I wanted to add dew drops to add some more dimension.
I finished card off by adding 4 transparent gems to the corners and a little ceramic pot that i had in my stash. I got this idea from the lovely Emma Williams who used an ideology bottle as a vase for her flower.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenge:

Fussy and fancy - inspiration picture ( i went with colours and flower)

creative fingers challenge - thank you/anything goes

crafting from the hearth - anything goes

paper creators - flowers and bows

Fan-Tastic Tuesday - Anything goes