Beautiful Thistle

Here are two cards I made a couple of weeks ago but never posted, due to being admitted to hospital with pneumonia. I am recovering at home now, but I'm not really up to doing much crafting as yet, so posts will be a bit thin on the ground for a while.

I fell in love with Stampin' ups  Beautiful Thistle stamp set, as soon as I saw it, probably because I have had a liking for pretty thistles since I was a child. So I knew I was going to buy it even though I 'm not sure how much use I will get out of it.

 I used Copic markers to colour the images on these cards. I used a white gel pen to highlight the leaves and petals. 

 

 To create the background, I blended a little brown ink around the edges and worked in towards the middle. Then splattered some ink over the top using a stamp and write marker pen with a diffuser gadget or the pen puffer as I like to call it.

On these cards, I used the  S.U deckled edge rectangle dies for the layers. These are a new addition to my craft stash. I really don't know how I missed these in the catalogue. I love the fact the spacing between each die is even on all sides. 

Woodland scenes

 I have been collecting the odd Lavinia stamp for a number of years, just one or two here and there, but over  the last 18months, I've been receiving them as gifts for Christmas and birthdays. I 've even bought a few extra myself, possibly because  I've bought everything I want from this years S.U catalogue. I always  struggle to find something to buy as the catalogue comes to an end.  So it's a good time to try something different using another company's products.

I find it quite a challenge to change style completely. Creating this type of scene takes some forethought and a bit of practise to create something that looks half decent, but it's worth  persevering.   Even though Hubby doesn't like this style of stamping. He says they're  too busy for his liking.

My answer is, woodlands are busy places. He obviously doesn't take in the scenery when he is walking through the woods with the dog. ha ha. I'm going to be in trouble for that one.  lol.

My next post will be on how I create these scenes. So pop back in a few days if you're interested in how I did these.

There are also lots of  video tutorials on  Lavinia stamps website.