Whether it’s called Highland Heather, Purple Posy, Gorgeous Grape or something else, I love purples. I always have. Of all the purples in the current Stampin’ Up! range, Gorgeous Grape has to be my absolute favourite. It’s bright and cheery and brings a smile to my face every time I use it.

That said, the smile was wearing a little thin after colouring fifty eight tiny flowers for today’s project.

FLORAL BORDER AND MORE

When I sat down to make this card what I had in mind was an all over floral design. However somewhere along the way I ended up just stamping a border using Tuxedo Black ink on Whisper White Card. For this I chose one of the smaller images from the Under My Umbrella Stamp Set and turned it as I went around the piece. This gave the finished border a more random look.

With the border complete I went back to the stamp set for a different image. This one was similar to the first but a little larger. I stamped the larger image in the centre of the flap on a Whisper White Medium Envelope, then in the centre near the top of a Whisper White Card layer. Finally I stamped it on a smaller piece of Whisper White Card.

The “Life’s showers brings love’s flowers” sentiment also comes from the Under My Umbrella Stamp Set, and fitted beautifully beneath the flowers on the small piece of Whisper White Card.

Now with all the stamping done, I was ready to begin colouring.

GORGEOUS GRAPE AND MORE

I decided that I’ve used the Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers quite a lot recently and was looking for something a little different. I picked up my watercolour pencils but remembered that the Tuxedo Black ink I’d used for the stamping would run if I added water. Not to worry, instead of water I could blend out the watercolour pencil lines using my Blender Pen instead.

Stampin’ Up! have two sets of watercolour pencils. They’re rather unimaginatively called Watercolor Pencils Assortment and Watercolor Pencils Assortment 2. I picked up the Assortment 2 and tipped the pencils out of the box. Looking at my colour choices I immediately saw a combination I knew would work.

I started by colouring all the pairs of flowers using the Gorgeous Grape pencil. Then I added Granny Apple Green to all the leaves. There’s an odd shaped piece in the image which could be a berry, or the back of a flower and I chose Coastal Cabana for that.

With the colouring complete I then went over each area in turn with the Blender Pen, starting with the Gorgeous Grape flowers. After blending the watercolour pencil lines on the flowers I wiped the tip of the Blender Pen on some scrap paper and then moved on to the leaves. Once they were done I wiped the Blender Pen tip on scrap paper again until it was clean and then moved on to the Coastal Cabana areas.

Finally for the flower centres I took the Crushed Curry watercolour pencil. This time I touched the tip of the Blender Pen in the centre of a flower then immediately added a dot with the watercolour pencil. As the card was still damp from the Blender Pen fluid the pencil went on really easily and showed up well. With that done all I had to do was put it all together.

SIMPLE LAYERS

Sticking with my original colour choices I began by cutting and scoring a piece of Gorgeous Grape Card. Then I folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder.

Next I added a layer of Granny Apple Green Card using Multipurpose Liquid Glue, followed by the piece with the floral border. The other Whisper White layer with the flowers at the top were then fixed inside the card base. That just left the sentiment.

Using more liquid glue I mounted the sentiment onto a layer of Granny Apple Green Card then onto a piece of Gorgeous Grape Card. Finally to complete the project I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to add the layered sentiment to the card front.

GLOBAL DESIGN CHALLENGE

It seems like I’m not the only people dreaming of spring flowers as the team at the Global Design Challenge seem to have the same idea. This week’s challenge is #GDP227 – Let It Grow and I was delighted to add my project to their challenge gallery today.

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