Carved flowers

Do you ever get a backlog of new crafty things you've just not got round to playing with? I know I do! These carved flower stamps have been waiting patiently for me to ink them up for quite some time now. The Pan Pastels are a more recent purchase but they've still had to wait a while - oops! It was fun to try them out in anger though (having previously only tested them on the back of an envelope the day they arrived!).

The DL format of this card looks
elegant in real life but it was a swine to photograph - I hope you get the idea!

I stamped the flowers on an old book page and added Diarylide Yellow and Orange Pan Pastels over the top, letting the yellow blend out past the flower outline to get a "glow". I used a green pencil for the calyx area. I then smeared a liberal amount of Turquoise and a little Ultramarine on the background. I really liked the way the pastels spread and the amount of pigment is very impressive - a little goes a very long way and those pots are going to last ages!

The flowers looked pretty but I decided I'd like more definition so I used a stamp positioner and stamped again directly over the top of the original. If you planned to do this in advance I guess you could use a light coloured ink for the first stamping, just as a guide for where to spread your colour and then you wouldn't have to be quite as precise with the second impression.

That Hero Arts sentiment gets another outing - I seem to be incapable of making a birthday card without it at the moment! This one's destined for my sister-in-law but she's not a blog browser so I think it's safe to show.

Stamps:
Carved Flowers by Darkroom Door
Say It All by Hero Arts

Paper:
Old book page, black and white cardstock

Ink: Onyx Black Versafine by Tsukineko

Other:
Diarylide Yellow, Orange, Turquoise, Ultramrine Pan Pastels
Marine Green Prismacolor pencil
Krylon matt sealant
Acrylic nail art gems

The Pan Pastels UK challenge blog has an "anything goes" theme this week and since I remembered to look I'll hook this up there.

Thanks for stopping by!