Guest Designer at Stamping Sensations

I was delighted to be picked as the winner of the January challenge at Stamping Sensations and as well as a prize of a wonderful bundle of mixed media goodies I was invited to be the guest designer for this month's challenge, which is "Close to Nature".

The challenge is a stamping challenge - and my card for it uses LOTS of stamping!

I started by using yellow and light green inks to sponge the background, leaving a small clear area in the middle as a focal point. Then I stamped the Anitas speckled background lightly all over with the same green I had used for the sponging. With pale grey ink I stamped the dandelion clock (an old unmounted stamp I bought on a trip to America), stamping 2 or 3 impressions from each inking, randomly over the background, and the tiny Kanban butterfly in some of the gaps.

Next I stamped the dragonfly, to make sure I positioned the plants correctly around it. Although I wasn't planning to stamp over it, I masked it just in case I misjudged. Then I set to work with the plants, using several different silhouette wild flower stamps and various shades of green. I arranged them to form a frame around the dragonfly, making the undergrowth denser at the bottom just as it would be in real life. The dragonfly and all the plants are old Graphicus sets - although no longer available from them I believe other companies have bought the designs.

To finish off, I ran a green inkpad around the edge and mounted it on a white card blank, and used Stickles to give the dragonfly its metallic glint.

I am sharing this with
Alphabet Challenge - Zero embellishments
Sweer Stampin - No designer paper
Craft Rocket - No Patterned Paper