Nature Cards

 

Good morning Ai Friends!  

For the cards this month I was inspired by the beautiful weather we are having here in Ohio.  Although, it's pretty hot!  All of the flowers and trees look so full and gorgeous that I created the two following nature cards.  For my sheep card I masked off the watercolor paper to 3x3.  It is amazing what you can stamp and paint within this size.  I  used the following stamps for this project:  5378 - WC Stone Creek Scene, 5070 - Good Shepard, 5009 - WC Mini Flowers, 5008 - WC Flower Set 3, 4051 - Foliage, 5372 - WC Mini Foliage, and 5476 - WC Foliage Set 5.  I stamped the stone creek scene first using markers 565 and 969.  I stamped off twice with all of the images.  The sheep were stamped next and I painted in all of the details except for the bottom flowers and the sky.  Masking off the sheep and the mountains, I then stamped in the flowers and painted the sky.  When the painting was dry I added Dr. Ph. Martin's Bleed Proof White to the sky to give it a more "fluffy" look.  Then it was time to find papers and dies from my stash! 

The following Tombow markers were used on both of these nature cards:  098, 126, 177, 879, 899, 837, 636, 025, 526, 565, 969, N65, N75, 977, 992, 401, 451 and 491.

I was really on a roll with painting outdoor scenes!  I find it beautiful how the trees blow in the wind and the calls of so many different birds.  So..., there is a person in my neighborhood who has the most beautiful yard and I took inspiration from one their groupings and painted the following card.  These are the stamps I used.  5373 - WC Large Tree, 4869 - WC Small Container, 5415 - WC Rocks, 5416 - Vintage Car, 4051 - Foliage, 5009 - WC Mini Flowers, 5126 - WC Foliage Set 4, and 5476 - Foliage Set 5.  With this card the first thing I did was make a mask for every image on this card.  That was a lot of cutting but I find it very relaxing.  Here's a tip, after you have cut out your images, keep the image with your packaging for each stamp set and when you go to stamp those images again you have your masks already to go!  I use Post-it full adhesive backing for the masks that I order from Amazon.  I will also stamp onto a piece of clear acetate the images I want to use so that I can see how the images will look in my layout.  I stamped my images in the following order; rocks, tree, flower pot and lastly, the fence.  After I stamped the rocks I covered them with my mask and then stamped in the tree and pot.  Next I covered the pot and the tree with the masks and added in the fence.  Now for the fun part, I added in all of my foliage, flowers and painted the tree and fence.  As always, I then added in some white details with the bleed proof white.  I used popup dots to raise the "hello" as the final embellishment.

 

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and staying cool!