Fruit and Flowers hyacinths

Am I the only who thinks winter has flown by this year? I can hardly believe that spring is here - but it really is! My garden in bursting with life now and the bulbs are looking a treat. One of my favourite spring flowers is the hyacinth with its heavenly scent, and I like to have pots of them round the house. I was playing around with my Fruit and Flowers stamp set the other day and came up with a way of stamping hyacinths too! Come and have a look:

Actually these look more like grape hyacinths because I didn't want them to be so big they tipped over the vase!

Here's a close up. I used the smallest flower in the Fruit and Flowers set to layer up the flower and I love the different shades of purple you can get just by stamping more than once without re-inking.

And what do you think of the vase? It's made with the Christmas ornament punch! I know this isn't a new idea and I've featured these vases on my blog before, but this time I used vellum card stock which I think is very effective. Colouring 'water' on the back of the vellum with a Bashful Blue marker and wiping it away with a tissue gives a really subtle effect although it's difficult to photograph. I've found that the 2-Way glue pen makes a great job of sticking vellum fairly invisibly.

Now, just in case you'd like to give this a go, here's a mini tutorial:
First the leaf. It's just a simple masking technique.
Edited to add: I've just realised that this should go into the Less is More challenge where Chrissie and Mandi are looking for cards featuring Masking. It'll be my third entry this week so I hope you won't get fed up with me!

Fold a post-it note in half lengthwise and cut a narrow slit along the fold. Open the post-it note out...

... and lay it onto your card stock (I used Confetti White as I like using speckled paper for nature projects). Use the post-it note as a mask and draw long lines into the slit with a Certainly Celery marker.

Your leaf will look like this. I've also drawn some rough stems for my hyacinths. Hmmm - looking at them now, they're perhaps a little rougher than I intended but they'll do!

Use the tiny flower from Fruit and Flowers to start building up the flower. Use the stamp three or four times without re-inking to get a good range of colours. Keep adding layers of flowers working down the stems.

Hold the 'vase' in place so that when you come near the bottom of your flowers you'll know when to stop! Finish the flowers by dotting the centres of them with the Certainly Celery marker. I haven't done that in this photo but if you look at the finished card you'll see the effect.

I hope you'll have a go at this technique - it's great fun! Do let me know how you get on won't you.

Here's what you need to make today's card:

Stamps: Fruit and Flowers, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Concord Crush for the flowers, Baja Breeze, Bashful Blue, Crumb Cake to sponge the background

Card stock: Confetti White, Concord Crush, Baja Breeze textured, scrap of vellum card stock

Other: Markers, Ornament punch, paper snips, post it note, linen thread, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you (except the post it note!) and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

As part of the Sale-a-bration promotion, here until 31st March, you can choose a free stamp set or set of papers with EVERY £45 you spend. Click here to see all the fabulous Sale-a-bration freebies.

I've been having to make all these trips to the dentist lately but today it's my husband's turn. He is not very happy and I think it's probably best not to plan anything too crunchy for dinner...

Thank you for visiting my blog and for all your emails and comments which I love reading. I'll be back tomorrow with more crafting fun and I hope to see you then.

Hugs,