celebrate sunflowers.

This sunflower stamp set is called Celebrate sunflowers and is new from Stampin'up. I ummed and erred over buying this set for a while, as it's not really the sort of thing I would go for normally. But I am so glad I did. I didn't buy the die set that goes with this stamp set, but after fussy cutting a load of sunflowers and leaves I am beginning to wish I had.
To create these cards I stamped the sunflowers  and masked them off before stamping the leaves. 

I coloured the images  with Copic markers and using the splatter stamp from the French Foliage set, I stamped the splatters randomly around the panel.  I must add,  I used the second  and third generation stamping technique  to stamp the splatters. What that means is .... You ink up the stamp and stamp it on scrap paper, then without adding more ink you stamp your work. By doing this you get a lighter shade of ink. Third generation stamping is when you stamp the ink off twice before stamping your work.  You will get a very pale image when you use  the 3rd generation stamping technique.
I then lightly  sponged the edges for a slight vintage look.

I stamped the sentiment last as this needed more drying time. I used a pigment ink because I wanted an intense  black that stands out and they are very slow drying. I could have used memento and stamped it over and over again to achieve a deeper black,  but I thought I'd save time and use Versamark as it turned out by the time the versamark had dried I hadn't save any time at all.

Celebrate sunflowers 2

Fussy cut sunflowers and leaves...How I wish I 'd bought the  coordinating dies.

This is another simple card to make and once the colouring is done,  it only takes five minutes to cut and mount a piece of DSP,...stamp a sentiment and add the flower and leaves.

I used small 1mm thick foam pads spaced about an inch apart to stick the flower on, by doing this, it meant I would have room under the flower to tuck the leaves in. 

Tip;

After cutting out leaves and flowers  give them a slight curl by running the back of the flower over the back of a closed  pair of scissors  with your thumb on top. (Like you're curling florists ribbon.) Work your way around the edges of  flowers for an even curl. Work from one end to the other with leaves for a natural leaf curl.