Springtime Flowers on Kraft (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a couple of cards to show you today using the Spring Birds multi-buy stamp set. These stamps are so versatile and you can use them to make cards suitable for occasions across the year, which hopefully my first card will demonstrate.

I hand cut a circle from the front of a kraft card blank, by drawing around a circular die with a pencil as a guide. I then stamped the small motif using Versamark and white embossing powder around the edge. TIP: I stamped the four main points,  top, bottom, left and right, as if I was making a clock, to start. Then I filled the rest of the spaces in afterwards, it was much easier that way.

I stamped the flower image seven times, starting at the bottom, masking them as I went along, so that I did not stamp over the previous one. I then used a couple of sprig stamps from the Briar Rose Butterfly/Harebell Butterfly multi-buy stamp set, which I coloured with water based markers. I stamped these a couple of times, before re-inking so that some of the images are less defined, giving the impression of the images being in the background. I added a couple of butterflies, and coloured all of my images with waterbased markers and a waterbrush. Finally, I stuck the card behind the circle aperture.

My second card uses a piece of scrap card left over from another project. When I was colouring some seam binding recently, I used some watercolour paper to mop up the excess moisture from the ribbon, and the background on this card is the result. It provides a perfect match to the ribbon that I have added to the card.

I stamped the tulips onto the card, masking one set, before adding the second. I then stamped two rows of the small motif along the top and bottom of the background using black ink. I also added a sentiment from the stamp set, before matting the background onto black card. I stamped the tulip images onto spare card, and coloured them using watercolour pencils. I cut them out and added them to the card.

I stamped two rows of another small motif onto orange vellum, using Versamark and white embossing powder to create a lacy border effect. I cut this out, and attached it to my panel, before sticking the panel to a kraft card blank.

I hope that I have given you some inspiration for using these lovely stamps, particularly some of the smaller motifs, which are often overlooked on a stamp plate. They make great borders and edges for your cards. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx