Sweet Cherry Blossom

It's the weekend, so that means it's craft time!!

It's a busy time of the month in my craft room as I prepare for my next workshop and begin my samples for the next Clarity shows, but it's also an exciting time as I get to play with new products too.

If you would like more details about my workshops, please visit my workshop page at the top of this blog for more details.

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Today I'm going to show you the card I made for the Clarity New Design Club (issue 82) and give you the step by step (unfortunately without pictures) of how it's made for those of you that are not in the club.

However if you'd like to join the club, it's just had a facelift and is looking fantastic with it's glossy step by step tutorials by Barbara herself.  If you would like to learn more about the benefits please visit the Clarity website.

Here's the stamp that came out with issue 82:

And here's the card that I created as inspiration:

Materials used:

Theuva card

Stamp - NDC cherries

Stamp - NDC thank you

Adirondack ink - lettuce & black

Promarkers

Flexmarkers

Post it notes

Instructions:

1. For this one we're using Theuva card as we're going to be doing some Promarker work, Promarkers also mean Adirondack ink so that your line art doesn't bleed.
2. You need masks for this project too, so grab your post its and stamp the image at the sticky end and cut it out four times.  You will also meed a mask of the largest flower for the centre.
3. Ink up the largest flower only with Black Adirondack, making sure you remove the ink from the rest of the stamp with a wet wipe or kitchen roll, and place this in the centre of your card. Cover with a mask.
4. In up the whole stamp, and using the mask as your centre point, slightly overlap the stem of the branch onto it.  If you think of the image as a clock face the image will be at five to the hour.
5. Repeat as above this time stamping at 25 past the hour, ten past the hour and lastly at twenty to the hour.
6. For the next layer we need to mask what we've already stamped.
7. Ink up your stamp and blot onto a piece of copy paper.  Stamp your image between two of the images already on your artwork.  This is using the second generation of ink and will appear as though it is further away.
8. Repeat for the other three branches.  Remove all masks.
9. Colour the cherry blossom using flexmarkers (Pale Blossom, Tea Rose & Sorbet) using the lightest colour all over and graduating the darker colours towards the centre.  Remember to use a light touch and don't "flood" (use too much ink) your work.
10. Colour the leaves using a combination of Promarkers and Flexmarkers (Bright Green & Chartreuse) shading as above.
11. Colour the stems with Promarkers (Caramel).
12. Ink up the brayer with Lettuce Adirondack and roll onto the Splodgemat to even out the ink on the roller.  Cover all four corners and the edges graduating colour towards the centre of the work.
13. To add depth to the colour add Black Adirondack ink to your Splodgemat and repeat the step above.
14. Mould the "Thank You" sentiment to reflect the shape of your artwork and, using the Black Adirondack, stamp in the bottom right hand corner.
15. Mount onto red card.

I hope you have fun trying this card or just reading about it.  Why not leave me a comment and a link to your blog so that I can have a look at your artwork.  You give me so much inspiration browsing around your blogs.  I LOVE CRAFTING!!!

See you next time xx