Sunflowers and Sunshine

Hello there fellow crafters!  It's Kristina again and I've got a heap of sunflower cards to share with you!  My cards all use the new Harvest Blessings Deluxe card kit from Scrappy Tails Crafts.  You can buy all of the pieces individually except for the pearls.  In fact, I made SIX cards!  Let's take a look.

I was inspired by the May 2022 Sheetload from Call me Crafty Al.  Her sketch was in a vertical layout but horizontal worked better for me.  

I started by stamping one of the sunflowers from the Wild Sunflowers stamp set with black ink onto watercolor paper.  I stamped it six times.

Then I grabbed some Distress Inks.

I squished the ink pads onto my media mat and spritzed lightly with water.  Then I used them like watercolors and applied with a paint brush.

After I dried them with the heat tool, I splattered all of them with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I'm loving splatters so much right now!

Next I cut out all of my card pieces and gathered them together.  All of the patterned paper is from the Harvest Blessings 6x6 paper pad.

As I started putting my layers together, I decided to ink around the edges of the sunflower images with the Walnut Stain Distress ink.  I also added foam tape to the sunflower layers before adding to the card panels.

And here's a close up look at each of the six cards.

You can see in the pictures that I decided to add a sentiment after I put the cards together.  I stamped the sentiment from Wild Sunflowers with Versamark ink.  Then I sprinkled with gold embossing powder and melted it with my heat tool.  I adhered them with liquid glue to the panels.

I should mention that I couldn't decide on my card base color so three of them are on a natural color and three of them are on dark brown.  I did splatter the bases with gold paint before adding all of the card layers.

And I can't let you go without a close up of the sunflowers.  I was so pleased with how the watercoloring turned out!

Thank a bunch for stopping by today!

~Kristina

Compensated affilate links may be used - I may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you should you make a purchase using my link.

Teflon bone folder Shop at: EH	Anti-Static Tool EK Success Shop at: EH | ACOT	Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue Shop at: EH | ACOT	VersaMark Watermark ink pad Shop at: SBC | EH
Tonic Studios-Retractable Craft Pick Shop at: SBC | EH	VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink pad Shop at: EH | ACOT	Therm O Web Foam Tape Shop at: SBC | EH	Canson Watercolor paper Shop at: EH
Hero Arts Gold embossing powder Shop at: EH | ACOT	Heat Tool Shop at: SBC	Trinity blending brushes Shop at: EH | T	Forest Moss Distress Ink Shop at: EH | ACOT
Silver Brush Black Velvet Round 4 Shop at: EH	Peeled Paint distress ink Shop at: EH | ACOT	Wild Honey distress ink Shop at: EH | ACOT	Metallic acrylic paints - Liquitex Shop at: EH
Wild Sunflowers - Scrappy Tails Crafts Shop at: SCT	Deluxe Harvest Blessings Card kit - Scrappy Tails Shop at: SCT	Harvest Blessings 6x6 paper - Scrappy Tails Crafts Shop at: SCT	Tarnished Brass Distress Spray Stain Shop at: ACOT
Walnut Stain Distress Ink Shop at: EH | ACOT	Mustard Seed Distress Ink Shop at: EH | ACOT

PDO Birthday Gnome

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season!  It's been great to spend time with family and friends but I think I'm ready to go back to a more normal schedule.  Today I've got a card for you that I created using the Polka Dot Orchard Caroling Gnomes stamp set.  I'm going to show you how to use an image that seems only good for holidays and use it for non-holiday.  I love when I can stretch my stamps!

Let's take a quick look at my finished card and then dive on in to the details.

I love gnomes and I thought this cutie from Caroling Gnomes would be perfect to create a masculine birthday card.  You see, this gnome is singing.  He could be singing happy birthday, Auld Lang Syne, Christmas carols or just about anything!  That's why I don't feel like he's limited to just the Christmas season.

I started by printing the gnome out onto Bristol Smooth cardstock.  I knew I was going to do a little stenciling and watercoloring and this is a great surfact for both of those things.  I also needed a mask for my gnome before I could do the stenciling.  I printed him out onto regular copy paper and spread a thin coat of Tombow Mono Multi liquid glue.  Once it dries, it becomes a temporary adhesive.  Absolutely perfect for a mask.

I put the mask in place and taped the plaid stencil on top.  The stencil I used is from Echo Park and is no longer available but I did link up to another similar stencil below.  I then used a blending brush and gray ink over the stencil.  I concentrated the color around the gnome and then let it fade the further I went out.

Before:

After:

Next it was time to color up the gnome.  I used a combination of Distress Inks, Distress Markers, Tombow and Marvy water-based markers to add the color to my scene.  Sometimes I added the ink directly to the paper and blended it out with a water brush.  Other times I smooshed the ink onto a block and then picked it up with the water brush.  It just depending on the depth of color I needed.

Here he is all colored up:

Now down to the card making.  I cut the gnome panel down with a Stitched Indented Rectangle die from Elizabeth Craft Designs.  I set the panel asided and started work on the card base.  I used a  piece of black cardstock to create a top fold A2 sized base.  I cut a piece of patterned paper from the Echo Park Little Lumberjack paper pad down to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  I glued this to the black card base.  I added foam tape to the back of the gnome panel and adhered to the card base.

The Happy Birthday sentiment comes from the Polka Dot Orchard Floral Flourish Background 3 set.

This set has several great sentiments and really cool backgrounds!  I plan to make some foiled background when I find the time...

I printed the sentiment onto white cardstock.  I cut it down to 2 1/2" x 1".  I glued it to a piece of black cardstock just slightly larger and then glued it on top of the gnome panel.  I let part of the left edge hang off over the panel. 

For the final touch I added some black pearls in assorted sizes.  That's it.  One masculine birthday card in the books for the new year!

Close up detail

I really appreciate you stopping by and hope that you will check out all of the great digital stamps available in the Polka Dot Orchard store HERE.

Toodles!
~Kristina

Supplies used:

Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue Shop at: SBC | EH	Tonic Studios-Retractable Craft Pick Shop at: SBC | EH	Therm O Web Foam Tape Shop at: SBC | EH	Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper Shop at: EH
Stitched Indented Rectangles - Elizabeth Craft Shop at: SBC	Barn Door Distress Ink Shop at: SBC | EH	Black Pearls - Kaisercraft Shop at: EH	Trinity blending brushes Shop at: EH
Little Lumberjack - Echo Park Shop at: SBC	Worn Lipstick Distress Marker Shop at: SBC | EH	Tattered Rose Distress Marker Shop at: SBC | EH	Fossilized Amber Distress Marker Shop at: EH
Black Soot Distress Marker Shop at: SBC | EH	Hickory Smoke Distress Marker Shop at: EH	Dark Jade 177 - Tombow Shop at: EH	Plaid Stencil - LDRS Creative Shop at: SBC