Creative Stamping Freebie - Vintage Collage

Greetings from Warts an' All towers, I'm not sure what happened to January but it sure flew by, I didn't get to do much crafting for a variety of reasons. Having our 18 month old Granddaughter to stay for the weekend was high on the list, followed by slipping down the stairs, misjudging the bannister and consequently causing my umbilical hernia to flare up making bending, sitting and just about any movement painful.

Plus dealing with a new freak menopause symptom that causes the skin on my thumbs (and only my thumbs) to split open as if its been cut. No sooner does one heal, another happens, rendering me unable to do so many tasks, until recently I really didn't realise just how many tasks you need you thumbs for! I've been liberally applying hand cream and just discovered that I can seal the cuts with a product called Germolene New Skin, this product alone has been the reason I've been able to craft again, the past few months I've ruined so many projects because my thumbs split and blood oozed out all over my projects ruining many of them.

This card is made with stamps from Issue 67 of Creative Stamping there are some fabulous stamps included in the set including 3 by Crafty Individuals, a relatively new company to me that make some fabulous stamps. I used a combination of Versafine Clair inks to do all the stamping and several Distress Ink Markers to colour the flowers and dragonfly. I know I promised a review of the VF Clair inks and as soon as I have all 24 ink pads I will, I'm 2 colours short of a full set so that I can make some swatches and test all the colours.

I started off with a 5" x 5" panel and used the script stamp from the set and 'Morning Mist' VF Clair ink to stamp the background. I couldn't resist distressing the edges a little so I used a little 'Vintage Photo' Distress Ink to take down the harshness of the white card I stamped on. Next I stamped the flowers and dragonfly from the set on to watercolour card using VF Clair 'Nocturne' and covered the stamped images in WOW clear embossing powder and then coloured the images with Distress Markers.

The two large purple flowers were coloured with Wilted Violet and Ripe Persimmon markers, the small photos were coloured with Picked Raspberry and Ripe Persimmon and the dragonfly was coloured with Peacock Feathers and Twisted Citron. I simply scribbled the markers towards the edges of the images and used a water brush to spread the colour all over the areas I wanted to colour.

I added the brown 'dots and squares' texture stamp from the set with VF Clair 'Acorn' ink and used 'Nocturne' again to add the ink blot and ink ring stamps. I used the shaping tool that came with free with issue 61 of Creative Stamping to give the flowers and the dragonfly a little extra dimension then I adhered the flowers to the card base. I added some small 3D foam squares to the dragonfly to raise him above the flowers and glued the finished panel to a homemade card base made from Kraft cardstock.

I added the sentiment 'Just a Note' which is also from the Vintage Collage set, stamping it on a scarp of white cardstock with 'Nocturne' ink before finally adding some shimmer to the centre of the flowers and the dragonflies wings with a Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle pen which sadly doesn't show up very well on the photos, but it adds a lovely shimmery effect in real life.

This set has so much potential and I'll be making lots more cards with it for my stash, the images can be used to make male and female cards and are brilliant for using on mixed media projects. You can see from my close up image just how well the VF Clair inks stamp and the detail they give, they are my new go to ink for this reason alone. I love how this project turned out, and it was rather quick to put together, the bright colours gave some sunshine to my soul on this cold winters day.

I've just got the new Tim Holtz Sizzix Wildflower Stems #1 & #2 sets and plan on using them to make some spring floral cards and some cards for Easter using those and the Cotton Tail die and I think that bright sunshine colours will be called for 😍 This week if my thumbs behave I'll also be stamping some spring cards with my wreath templates using some new stamps I got for my birthday last month. I've set myself the task this month to make a batch of 'Thank You', 'Just to Say' and some 'Sympathy' cards for my box. The plan is to also make 4-6 Christmas cards every month and set them aside for when I'll need them in December.

Coupled with the motivation board I'm making ready for the Live Well programme I start this week, and the cards to make for friends and family birthdays, there will be lots happening in the craft room, I have an MDF storage rack to make and decorate for my Stampin' Up ink pads and I still have to label all my oxide inks and sort out more stuff to give to my niece who is turning in to a fine papercrafter 😍Here's hoping my thumbs let me get on with the things I want to do! Stay safe and warm everyone and keep on crafting!