In the Spring Garden

Hi everyone, my husband loves gardening, so it was a bit of a no-brainer for me to make his birthday card a spring gardening scene with using some of Lavinia’s latest stamps. I’m also planning on making my April calendar page along similar lines but I needed to get this done first, so here it is. 

I cut a 7” square of stamping card and created the central heart by blending Elements and Distress inks through a heart stencil mask, using my mini hill and circle masks. I stamped the focal Herbalum (pixie) and wheelbarrow, then filled the wheelbarrow with stamped herb pots using various masking. I added some trees in the background including a couple in blossom, then stamped a group of pots in the bottom left corner and cute bunnies bottom right. I stamped a wreath of variegated foliage around the heart, then coloured the pots with Zig pens which I also used to “ground” the pots and bunnies. I stamped the sentiment and coloured it with a Zig pen, then highlighted everything with white Posca pen and Stabilo pencil before matting onto 2 shades of green card stock and an 8” card blank.

I also decorated the envelope to match. 

Stamps: Lavinia Herbalum Bob, Wheelbarrow, Rosemary and Thyme Pots, Flower Pots, Dill, Thyme, Skeleton Tree Scene, Tree Scene, Spring Trees, Leaf 1 Mini, Wild Hares (large), Birds;  Woodware sentiment - Made For You;

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Pine, Sundance); Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Tumbled Glass); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Portobello, Avocado, Shady Lane, Rainforest, Blue Belle, Lilac Bloom); Kuretake Zig Clean Color watercolour pens; Posca pen (white); Stabilo pencil (white);

Tools: Press To Impress heart mask; Lavinia Mini Hill and Circle masks.

Challenges I would like to enter:

AAA Birthday #71 - Masculine

Addicted to Stamps and More #488 - Birthdays

Crafty Catz #689 - Anything Goes with option Add a Sentiment

Creatalicious #286 - Anything Goes with option Use Green (2nd entry)

Creative Aunts #99 - Fantasy

Double D - Going Green

Dragonfly Dreams (March) - Gardening

Ellibelle’s Garden Party #1 - Anything In or From a Garden

Everybody Art #574 - For a Boy

Four Seasons (March) - Spring (2nd entry)

Heart’s Quest Celebrations of Love #3 2025 - Birthday

Heart’s Quest Fantasy #3 2025 - Anything Goes Fantasy

Inspiration Station #71 - Inspiration Photo

Lavinia Creative Challenge (March) - Animal Magic (version without sentiment)
Male Room #196 - Mixed Media 

Outlawz Monday Greetings (March) - Happy Birthday

Simon Says (Monday) - A Bit O’ Green

Simon Says (Wednesday) - A Bit O’ Green

Unicorn #107 - Boys/Men

Word Art Wednesday #691/692 - Anything Goes

It actually took me several attempts to make this card as I had a couple of mishaps, including masking part of a pot stamp with low tack tape for inking, then forgetting to remove the tape before stamping - oops! In truth I also managed to make a black smudge on this one near the bunnies, but I think (hope!) I managed to disguise it with the foliage! Also the shading on the “grounding” isn’t as good on the envelope as my Zig pen didn’t blend as well on the paper of the envelope. Never mind - it’s done now and overall I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. 

I also wanted particularly to mention a brand new challenge - Ellibelle’s Garden Party -  which started yesterday over on my bloggy friend Ellie’s blog. It gives us opportunity to share anything garden related such as cards, garden photos etc … perfect for this or any time of year! 

I’m hoping the weather will be kind so that Graham and I can spend some quality time going out somewhere together over his birthday weekend. 

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,