Pretty inky flowers

 

Good Morning Ladies, 

From a very calm and quiet Gloucestershire,  I almost hadn't noticed that the wind had dropped, needless to say there isn't much blossom left on a

our cherry tree, it was lovely to hear the birds chirping again,  I do wonder where birds go when its that windy??  We did notice some nesting in our fir tree hedge, while we were down there yesterday, it be lovely watching their progress, we have a super friendly Robin that was having a great time collecting all the bugs and worms from the freshly dug soil that Paul was filling the beds with. 

Yesterday seemed a really long day, Paul and the girls were all at work, so I was up early as Paul doesn't like me attempting the stairs while nobody else is here,  in fairness I feel exactly the same, they are a huge string despite the easy lay out, I have stumbled a few times, particularly on days when I haven't slept well, I really struggle to hitch up my right leg enough to move it forward.   So I was up dressed and ready before 8am yesterday,  we were expecting the delivery of the top soil too, he came around 9am, he did a great job, the lorry was huge and he was excited to show me how close he had managed to get to the fence, bless him he was a young lad, very polite and funny, I gave him praise which seemed to make his day!  The next few hours were painfully slow,  I painted my nails with a kit that gives like a gel nails effect without the price or the damage to your nails, my nails were all cracking and almost peeling, they were so short they were sore, now they have a hard protective layer over them, that's hard and lasts a couple of weeks. 

I then got on with todays card, I used a Dutch Doobadoo stencil 'Hessian ' I believe, with some Mowed Lawn DO, I varied the amount of pressure so that the ink was lighter in some places.  I matted my background onto a SU Polished Pink' mat and then onto a white card base.

To make the flowers I took some off cuts of a watercolour card and die cut the flower from Tim Holtz Wildflower die set, I used the Mowed Lawn again, smooshing it into a into a non stick sheet, spritzed with water and dipped and dried a few layers onto my flower stalk, building up the colour while trying to keep the watercolour look.  Next came the flowers, 

I smooshed Kitch Flamingo and Picked Raspberry DO's into my mat and spritzed,  a did a few layers but wanted more of a textured look, the Kitsch Flamingo and Picked Raspberry seemed to just blend together, so I remembered that I did a project a while back where I combined Distress Ink with Distress Oxide, so I got my Picked Raspberry Distress Ink and smooshed that onto my mat and spritzed it, I wanted to try and pick up the tiny little dots of ink that you get when you use non stick mat, (it doesn't create dots on glass mats).  I made sure my flowers were dry and then ever so gently lowered them down onto those pretty pink dots, i barely let the flower touch the ink, I quickly dried them to fix those dots before they disappeared,  I dip another dip and then stopped. The flower centres are made using the original Flower Soft'  I have had it since it was first shown on C&C easily 12+ years ago!  I quite like the texture it gives it does look quite realistic. 

I fiddled around until I was happy with the position of the flowers and then glued them down,  I stamped a quick Tim Holtz sentiment, which worked well with the flowers!  I am really pleased with how it turned out, especially the flowers! 

This lovely background was created by me using a piece of smooth card for 'mopping up' the ink left on my mat, i think it highlights how well Distress inks work with Oxides! 

I hope that you all have a good day,  

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra xxx