Poppies & Daisies

Couldn't resist the beautiful new set from Hobby Art: Floral Mix, designed by Janie Burnett-Bleach.

To make this card, I first stamped the flowers with Versafine ink (in Smokey Gray as I didn't want harsh black outlines), masking as necessary, and then, with all masks still in place, coloured the background by sponging with pigment inks. Next the leaves were stamped, after which I removed the masks. The flowers and leaves were coloured with watercolour pencils, and the bee and dragonflies were stamped and coloured. Finally, I added some shading around the images and some glitter glue to the insects' wings. All stamps by Hobby Art.

Our garden is full of poppies just now, so I didn't have far to look for inspiration when making my card. The poppy flowers only last a day; by evening all the petals will have fallen off, but next morning there will be as many if not more new flowers. Gorgeous!

They will be flowering for several weeks, hopefully, but then they will be gone until another year, so I think I will keep this card as a reminder of their beauty.

Thanks for looking!

Decisions, decisions!

Wow, we had some fabulous entries last month at Stamping Sensations! With all those stunning butterflies and fairies, I was in heaven! But this month it's not just about my favourites, but about everyone's, because the theme for our June Challenge is to

* * * * * USE YOUR FAVOURITE STAMP * * * * *

Favourite stamp?? How could I possibly choose one favourite?! There are so many that I like and use frequently.

I wonder whether you will have the same difficulty in choosing a favourite stamp as I did! I am really interested to see people's selections, but please do remember that our Challenge Rules require that  your project must use a stamp (which can be rubber, clear, or hand coloured digi) and the stamp must be the focal point (main element) of your project, if you want it to be eligible for the prize or top 3. You will certainly not want to miss out on the chance to be our winner, as from this month we will be giving not just one but two prizes! For full details of this month's prizes, see the Challenge Blog

Since my favourite topic is butterflies, my favourite stamp would have to be one of those, and and very possibly it would be one by our lovely sponsor for this month, the fabulous Visible Image. So I've used the butterflies from their Own Kind Of Beautiful set for my card. The sentiment is from their "Live In The Moment" set, which includes some beautiful dragonflies.

I also used my favourite inks of the moment, Distress Oxides, in my favourite colours, for the background and all the stamping, which I think shows the versatility of these amazing inks. The three main butterflies were cut out by hand and affixed with sticky pads.

My fab teamies have come up with a very eclectic selection of gorgeous designs for you this month (just goes to show we all have different tastes!), so do go over and take a look at them on the Challenge Blog. I'm hoping to see lots of creative entries for what I think should be a really interesting challenge. Hope you enjoy it too!