Nature

Good Morning to you all. By the time you get to look at this I will be back at work and feeling like I have never been away! I can't believe I have had my summer hols! The time has just flown by but I have done lots of lovely thing but I think the highlight of my holiday has to be the trip to the Claritystamp Retreat in Crowborough. 

Anyway back to reality now and doing the job that pays for my crafting addiction!

Today not only see the start of a new school year but it also sees the start of a new Challenge over at the Clarity Blog. Its worth a visit to see all the rules about the challenge and to see all the fabulous projects done by the DT to give you some inspiration. This month the theme is NATURE

Here's mine and for this one I have done a step by step tutorial for the main image of the card at least So here goes!

This is what I got out to start with. I will list everything I used at the end. 

I trimmed a piece of Theuva card top and side by 2 cm

I then brushed the edges with Old Paper Distress ink more round the edges but bringing it into the middle.

I then continued to build up the colour round the edges with Antique Linen, Brushed Corduroy and frayed burlap trying to keep a lightness in the middle but darker up the left hand side and at the bottom.

I finished off with Vintage Photo and Gathered twigs distress inks.

Don't worry if it looks a bit blotchy...its just a background.

Now use the script and diamonds stamps out of the journaling set. I used Old Paper Distress ink for both of these and second generation ink

(INK BLOT PLOT)

I then took the verse Count your Garden and stamped this in Antique Linen ink. Remember its a background so go off the page and dot it about a bit. And that's the background done. 

Now I got the gathered twigs distress ink pad and used it to stamp the verse,

then the tree branch and the insects. Remember that when you stamp the branch you do some ink blot plot to get the depth.

I then used a blending tool and darkened the edges with Vintage Photo and that was the main image finished.

I matted this on to black card

and trimmed it to a very fine border.

So the rest was a matter of finishing it off. When I was tidying up after making some other cards I found this piece of corrugated craft card so thought that would be perfect. I did go over it with my blending tool and Vintage Photo ink to tone it to the card.. I then tore a piece of brown card and a piece of pale orange and stuck these across the card having attached a piece of twine. I stuck all this onto a card blank 21 x 21 cm. I added the image I had made using foam tape and then added the twine bow and the paper flower. 

And here it is

Please let me know what you think of it.

I hope you spend some time looking at the other DT blogs then have a go at the challenge...you could win yourself £50 voucher to spend with Clarity.

Here's what I used

Distress Inks 

( Old Paper, Antique Linen, Brushed Corduroy, Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs)

Tree branch Stamp

Dragonfly

Lucky set (little dragonfly)

Journaling set(script and diamonds and branch)

Blooming Corner Kit (bee and dragonfly)

Count your Garden verse

Happy Crafting