Pot of Spring Flowers

Hello, Crafters.

Today I feel like I'm beginning to get back to normal! Yesterday I still felt pretty rough but improved greatly as the day wore on and the antibiotics did their work!

After we had enjoyed a quiet relaxing dinner last night, I came up to my craft room and created today's card!

I cased it from a card I've seen in the new catalogue but I've used totally different stamp sets. 

Three of the four stamp sets I've used for this card are being carried forward - the one that isn't is Circle of Spring. 

Using Basic Black Archival Ink, I started by stamping the flower pot, which is from the Sitting Here Stamp Set, onto a piece of Whisper White Cardstock (CS). 

 After I'd finished colouring the first image I'd stamped, I painted a small Crumb Cake area around the base of the pot to ground it - so far, so good!

Then I felt I wanted to "edge" the main image so I painted around the image using my Soft Sky Marker Pen. 

It looked OK but I didn't think it looked great!
 
For the second attempt, I started by stamping the Whisper White CS first, using the splatter stamp from the Touches of Texture Stamp Set, and Sahara Sand Ink. 

I stamped off three times, and this gave me the depth of colour I was looking for, and therefore I stamped a fourth generation image.

The amount of times you'd need to stamp off depends on how moist your ink pad is. 

I suggest you do what I did to begin with, which is, stamp off on a scrap of paper and count how many impressions you need to get the right depth of colour you'd like.

I painted my flowers, leaves, pot and grounding using the following Marker Pens: Sahara Sand (pot), Crumb Cake (grounding), Old Olive, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette and Sweet Sugarplum. 

I die cut the image using the second smallest circle Stitched Shapes Framelits Die, and layered it onto a scalloped circle die cut with size 5 of the Layering Circle Framelits Dies. 

I adhered the two together using Tombow. 

I took a strip of Whisper White CS and stamped a light Sahara Sand background on it in the same way I did for the main image.

Then I stamped the sentiment from the Balloon Celebration Stamp Set, using Basic Black Archival Ink. 

I took a strip of Sweet Sugarplum about the same size and fishtailed both pieces.

To put my card together, I started with a card base of Sahara Sand CS, with a middle layer of Whisper White CS, and a top layer of Sahara Sand CS. 

Using Basic Black Archival Ink, I stamped the wreath stamp from the Circle of Spring in a central position towards the top of the top layer. 

Then I adhered the three layers together using Tombow, and then I adhered the main image using dimensionals. 

I adhered the sentiment strips together wusing Tombow, and then adhered them to the card front using Dimensionals. 

I added a bit if bling by adding three Rhinestones in a row along the bottom of the Sweet Sugarplum strip.

I stamped about a quarter of the wreath stamp onto a piece of Whisper White CS in the bottom right hand corner, and, after allowing it a few seconds to dry, I adhered it inside my card.

That's about it today. I hope you're enjoying thi wonderful Easter weekend. Until tomorrow, happy carfting.

JanB.