Hello everyone and welcome to The Flower Challenge! A few months ago I was contacted by Aileen who asked if I would be interested in being on the Design Team for a new Flower Challenge that she was setting up. Well, as this is me, and I love florals, I couldn’t possibly say no! So here we are a few months later with our first challenge. We are very excited to have you join us!
To kick off the challenge we have the ever popular theme of “Anything Goes”. However in this case, as we are a flower challenge, you have to use florals on your card – whether it be stamps, die cuts, stencils or digital images. As I love Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, I decided to use those on my card.
I began by stamping the main floral image from Altenew’s Wild Hibiscus set in a random pattern over an A2 size panel of Bristol Smooth paper, using a waterproof ink. I then filled in the gaps using small stamps from Altenew’s Peony Bouquet. I made sure to use my MISTI for the stamping so that I could double stamp if necessary.
I picked a selection of Zig markers and set about colouring in the images. I used a palette of yellow, orange and red for the florals, the colours were laid down randomly and I used a waterbrush to move the pigment around as I went – the overall finished colour reminds me of some chewy sweets that I used to eat as a child called Fruit Salad!
Once I had completed the colouring, I went over some of the image lines with a black marker just to redefine them a little bit. I prepared an A2 black card base, cut a small strip of gold cardstock, and then cut off the bottom of my coloured panel at a diagonal, just to add some interest. I always have a small moment of doubt when I hack a finished card panel into two – particularly when it has taken a while to complete, but I think I took off just the right amount.
I then took my thanks die and the coloured panel and ran them through my Big Shot. I also die cut an additional two black and one gold sentiments. I layered up the die cuts to provide some dimension – two black, one gold and then the finished coloured piece on top, making sure I offset the coloured thanks just a little so you can see the gold peeking through underneath. I then stuck them all back into the card panel (like completing a jigsaw). As the sentiment has gold peeking out and is popped up, it gives the effect of hidden sentiment that you can see – such a lovely feature I think and you can see it more clearly below.
To finish I stamped “sweet friend” onto black cardstock using Versarmark ink and heat embossed it in gold. I popped some foam adhesive onto the back and adhered it to the panel.
I then stuck the finished panel using double sided tape to the black card base, inserting the tiny gold strip at the same time.
This completes my first card for “Anything Goes”. We hope you will join us and we are very much looking forward to seeing what you create. Please post your creations at The Flower Challenge.
Supplies used:
General – Black and Gold Cardstock; White Cardstock; Foam Adhesive; MISTI Stamping Tool; Archival Jet Black Ink; Versamark Ink; Hero Arts Gold Embossing Powder; Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue
Stamps – Altenew Wild Hibiscus; Altenew Peony Bouquet; WPlus9 Hand Lettered Hello;
Die – Simon Says Stamp Painted Thanks
Colour Medium – Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens – Light Green, Deep Green, Orange, Yellow, Red, Carmine Red, Brown, Black.