I have been having another little play today. I wanted to do a set of cards for the charity, which were quite clean and fresh, and reflected the time of year. Flowers are flowering, trees are budding, and there are lots of inspirations out there.

I have been off work this week, but have found only a little time for crafting, so I decided to make several cards at the same time, alternating between two stamps, and trying different water-colour techniques for each one – again! Also – a little photo-bomb from one of my cats……he said I was crafting too much today. Really! He wanted some attention…..just when I was photographing the cards…..and sorting other cards to put in envelopes to take in to work next week….. You can see from the photo of the purple and blue flowers and the shadow, that he was working his way in there……I thought I’d leave them in for some fun! Here is how he finally settled down:

I used water-colour card, and stamped the an image from Which Craft! set ‘Flower Art 1’ and another set which was free in Crafters Insider from Crafters Companion, in Versafine black ink. I coloured each flower with my Zigs, some I left solid, and some I used my water-brush. I actually like both effects equally. I tried different colours, but kept the green the same. I then matted with a similar colour, but found I didn’t have one to match the pink, so I coloured the edge of the white matt with the same purple zig, and then layered onto the bottom of the water-colour main image.

I thought the base card might be too plain (as I always seem to think!) so I used an embossing folder from Darice ‘mini-daisy’. It was a free gift with some other folders, and is just the right size for this card base – 4.2 x 5.7 inches. Ideal.

I then stamped a sentiment from another Which Craft! set ‘Tulip Trio’ and die cut the banner from Sue Wilson ‘Pierced Flags die set, adding that to the bottom of the card, adding a star sequin as per layout from a sketch challenge – Sketch Saturday – which I think is a great elegant layout, and suits me down to the ground today.

Oh – and one other thing – the last card – with all the sequins………yes – you guessed it – smudges. Again!! I put the card face down on the mat to put sticky tape on the back – and hadn’t cleaned it from colouring those layers with my zig……..who knew?

I shall be entering a card from this selection into the following additional challenges:

Inspirational – word prompt ‘Spring’

Daring Cardmakers – ‘Spring Garden’

Creates and Makes – ‘Anything goes/optional Spring’

Crafty Calendar Challenge – ‘April Showers or Spring’

Addicted to Stamps Challenge – ‘Not a square card’