Wednesday 25 January 2012

Botanical

I love those old Victorian botanical drawings, and the stamps on this card are all taken from the 7Gypsies "Conservatory" set.

"Nature"

I recently acquired some really good quality 300gsm cardstock, and it's been fun playing around colouring and stamping straight onto the card. The background here was coloured with distress inks and dried before stamping in Brushed Corduroy and decorating with gold Perfect Pearls (I can't get enough of these at the moment!). The main image was stamped in brushed corduroy. Masking techniques were used to block areas for distress colouring, then the individual stamps were gently coloured using a watercolour brush dipped in water & a little of each distress ink colour. Keeping to a muted & limited colour palette helps tie all the elements together.

"Side view showing dimension"

With so much stamping and colouring going on, the layout has been kept very simple. The main image panel was matted onto a thin frame of hammered gold cardstock (to match in with the perfect pearls), and layered onto the background with a thin strip of gold & deep pink lace. The (Tim Holtz) sentiment is simlarly coloured, matted & layered using the small oval & scalloped oval Nestabilities from Spellbinder. Both panels were adhered to the card using Pinflair to add some dimension.

"Butterfly"

For added interest, one of the butterflies was stamped in black archival ink onto thin acetate, cut out and the wings shaped, then stuck to the main image with glossy accents.

Entered for the following challenges:
Ribbon Carousel - non-traditional colours (botanical drawings should be black and white)
Cheerful Stamp Pad - birds of a feather
Truly Madly Crafty - Anything Goes
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - photo inspiration
Let's Ink it Up - Anything Goes
Fashionable Stamping - butterflies and bugs
Moving Along with the Times - things with wings
Simon Says - anything goes

32 comments:

  1. Fabulous, love the muted colours and how you done the blocked area with distress colouring.
    Kathy xx (from DC)

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  2. WOW this is super what a great card, thanks for playing on MAWTT this week Hazelxo

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  3. LOve the muted colours and dimensional butterflies. Thanks for sharing with us at LIIU, good luck. Hugz Suzanne

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  4. Hi Maddy! Thanks for the lovely comments you left on my blog about my Grungy Monday tag. I'm so glad that you liked it so much. That Crackle Accents stuff is amazing! I really love it...and Mica. And yes, Tim's butterfly stamp is amazing! I can't believe that I don't use it more!!! Thanks again for you nice comments!! <3 Candy

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  5. ooh this is so pretty .
    Thanks for joining us at MAWTT this week for a our Things with Wings challenge
    Lisa x

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  6. A beautiful card with wonderful butterflies on it. Thanks for joining us at FSC this fortnight.

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  7. It is looking really good - great technique.xxx

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  8. Maddy this is so incredible. I love how you did the main picture with the different blocks of colour and the stamps are gorgeous. I really love this card, definitely one of my favourites of yours though thats a tough call to make considering I love them all! Lee x

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  9. This is just gorgeous! Thanks for joining us at FSC! Yvonne

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  10. Great stamp set!! Perfect for our Birds of a FEather theme at The Cheerful Stamp Pad!! Thanks for joining the challenge!

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  11. This is such a soft a delicate finish...it is gorgeous! I especially like the butterfly, it fits in perfectly with the rest of the card. Thankyou for joining us this fortnight at Fashionable Stamping Challenges.
    Dot x

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  12. That looks a great stamp set. I love how realistic your butterfly looks!

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  13. Love how you used the stamps and the acetate to create the beautiful layout. Thanks for joining our "Birds of a Feather" Challenge over at The Cheerful Stamp Pad!
    Cindy
    DT

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  14. This is a gorgeous card, I love the soft colours you have used for the inked background. Beautiful feauture butterfly.
    Thanks for sharing with us at Fashionable Stamping Challenges. Hope to see you again.
    Avril

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  15. Wonderful card, love the beautiful images and the shimmer is lovely! Hugs Jayne. x x

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  16. Beautiful card, the stamps you've used are gorgeous and the blending of the DI's is stunning. Thanks for joining us at the FSC. Sue C x

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  17. Great techniques and wonderful stamping. Thank you for playing along with the Cheerful Stamp Pad.

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  18. oh Hun just love this,adore the stamping and just love those butterflies,so effective hugs cherylxxx

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  19. gorgous card,love the butterfly. sue xx

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  20. This is a pretty and clever card, the stamps match the paper so well. Hopped over from DC

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  21. Very pretty, I love how you have used unique colours, works fabulous with the theme. I also love what you have done with the butterfly which adds dimention.

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  22. Gorgeous, really special project :-) Just leapblogging! Elaine-xxx-

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  23. fab card lovely butterflyxx

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  24. Stunning card - those colours work so well together!

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  25. I think I have already comented on this but I am on the HOP. It,s still lovely. xxx

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  26. This is lovely. Thanks for joining the "Birds of a Feather" at the Cheerful Stamp Pad.

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  27. The most beautiful stamping here and the colours are gorgeous. Love the acetate butterfly embellishment too.
    Thanks for taking part in our FSC challenge and wishing you good luck.
    Fliss x

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  28. Beautiful delicate colours and beautiful stamping.
    Thank you for sharing with us at FSC.
    Wishes
    Lynne

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  29. Thankyou so much for joining us at Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog with this gorgeous creation. I hope you can join in with our Animal Antics challenge this week. xxx

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Thanks for leaving a comment, it's nice to know I'm not just talking to myself :)