Natures Walk birthday card

People often ask where I get my inspiration from and the answer is Life! I'm inspired by things around me! But ideas are also triggered by talking to people and today's card came about by a conversation I had with a lovely lady the other day about blender pens. I was explaining how you could get a sort of airbrushed look by blending your inks or watercolour pencils and crayons. Afterwards, I couldn't wait to have a go myself - so I made this card:

The buddleia is stamped onto a card base made with my favourite Confetti card stock. I used a post-it note mask at the bottom of the card to keep the bottom of the plant straight so that I could draw a frame around it, making it look as if the plant is bursting out of the frame. (Well that was the idea anyway!) Now, where there's a buddleia, there must be a butterfly...

 ... and here he is! I stamped him in Basic Grey ink before colouring him with my Stampin' Up watercolour pencils, then blended the colour with a blender pen. I used blue, orange and purple pencils here and I love the way you get a seamless blend.

Come and zoom in on my raised buddleia branch!

During the conversation with the same lady, we were talking about cutting stamped images out and popping them up on dimensionals. I know some people find this too fiddly but I really enjoy it and I always think the results are worth the effort. I wouldn't be without my lovely paper snips for this job - or my +3.00 reading glasses come to think of it!

Supplies needed for this project:

Stamps: Nature Walk, Vintage Labels (retired)

Ink: Marina Mist, Basic Grey

Card stock: Confetti White

Other: Pear Pizzazz, Concord Crush, Basic Grey markers, watercolour pencils

You can buy any of these supplies from me and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

Have you been reading reports about how our young people have lost the ability to speak English properly? Well it's not true in our family - here's an example: Yesterday I asked my 15-year old daughter if she'd be attending a course described in a letter emailed through from her school. "No," she replied. "You may notice that the letter refers to year 8, whereas I..." she drew herself up to her full height at this point, "... am hovering on the brink of womanhood!" We then both collapsed laughing.

Thank you for dropping in today. I shall be back tomorrow with Three Minute Thursday so, if you're looking for fast inspiration, do come and join me then.