Embrace the Flowers

Hi everyone, this month’s ATC swap in the Tracy Evans FB group has a theme of “Embrace the Flowers”.  Given the huge number and variety of floral design stamps Tracy has produced both for AALL & Create, and most recently for her own brand, the possibilities for this theme are endless - but I just HAD to include the new wheelbarrow stamp! I ended up making a series of 6 ATC’s - 4 for the swap and 2 extra for me to trade separately. They involved a lot of steps and stages and were very fiddly and time consuming, but I love playing with these stamps and am very pleased with how they turned out - here they are.

I cut six pieces of white stamping card each fractionally smaller than standard ATC size, and created my backgrounds by blending Lavinia Elements inks using my Mini Hill Masks and a home made cloud stencil.  I then stamped the wheelbarrows, and masked each one in turn while I repeatedly stamped a foliage portion of a larger stamp in Verdant Versafine Clair followed by a 2nd generation fern in Shady Lane VFC… this part of the process really did take forever! I then stamped 18 little flowers, coloured with Zig pens and added white Posca highlights and Wink of Stella for sparkle, and fussy cut them all out. I stamped a little tulip onto each ATC using various shades of VFC, and a portion of the “Branched Heart” stamp to represent an overhanging tree branch. I added white Posca highlights to the tulips and wheelbarrows, then matted each panel onto a standard ATC size piece of black card stock before finally attaching a row of 3 flowers onto each wheelbarrow.

Here are some closeups.

ATC 1/6

ATC 3/6

ATC 5/6

Stamps: Tracy Evans Boutique Designs TE14 The Wonder if Nature, TE13 Delight In Nature, TE6 Branched Heart, TE3 Fern, AALL & Create #906 The Good;

Media: Lavinia Elements Inks (Blue Lagoon, Olive); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Verdant, Shady Lane, Tulip Red, Cheerful, Baby Pink, Lilac Bloom, Charming Pink, Summertime); Kuretake Zig Clean Colour watercolour pens; Wink of Stella; Posca pen (white);

Tools: Lavinia Mini Hill Masks; home made cloud stencil.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Allsorts #782 - Anything Goes

ATC’s Around The World (May) - Anything Goes (2nd entry) - TOP 3

Beautiful Blossoms #17 - Anything Floral Goes (3rd entry)

Crafts Galore Encore #123 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crazy Is Our Fame, Stencils Are Our Game (May) - Use a Stencil (2nd entry)

Creative Crafters #76 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Four Seasons (May) - Anything Goes Spring (2nd entry)

Love to Craft #80 - Anything Goes (3rd entry) - TOP PICK

Mix It Up #71 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Outlawz (May) - Anything Goes In a Card Free Zone (2nd entry)

Paper Funday #65 - Anything Goes with option Flower Shoppe

Papercraft #106 - Flower Power (3rd entry)

Try It On Tuesday - Small Things - TOP 5

We Love Stamping (May) - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #649/650 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Speaking of embracing the flowers … I’d also like to share a few pictures I took at Rufford Old Hall, a National Trust Tudor Hall near Liverpool which we visited in the gorgeous sunshine last Sunday.  The flowers were in glorious full bloom and made me feel quite inspired, particularly the honeysuckle, dandelion clock and cow parsley which really reminded me of Lavinia stamps. 

Sadly the weather here has really gone downhill since then, but today is looking a bit brighter again so we can but hope some more spring sunshine isn’t too far away! Take care everyone and thanks for visiting. 

Hugs,