Friday, March 04, 2011

Is it Spring Yet?

Well, who knows!  A week or so ago it certainly seemed so - the temperature was in double figures and the sun popped out for a while - but these last few days it's been really chilly with max temperatures making it to about 4 degrees.
Never mind, today on the Daring Cardmakers we're forcing Nature's hand a bit and celebrating the first Friday of the new month with our regular Flowers of the Month challenge.  The traditional flowers for the month of March are the Jonquil and the Daffodil


In our garden the daffodils aren't out yet, but they are in bud and I love seeing them grow, the buds forming, then gradually opening.  Even when it's still too soon to put the scarves and gloves away seeing the daffodils in the garden warms my spirits!
I really wanted to keep my card simple  (plus it's a bit of a hassle hunting out stuff atm),  and in my mind's eye I saw a single flower in a tall deep-blue bottle and thought I'd have a go at doing something like that.
You're probably getting sick of seeing "I cut these with my Craft Robo", hehe but I'm sorry, this is another one!
My excuse is that the Robo is sitting on my desk alongside my pc and the box of Bazzil sheets and the scrap box are all close to hand whilst my papers and a lot of my other stash is all over the place!
So I found a clip-art of a bottle shape I liked, then hunted out a daffodil clip-art to "put" in it.
It's just a case of making the templates separately then on the Craft Robo desktop getting them to look roughly "right" together  then I resize the whole thing to fit the card I want to use.  One day I'll remember to do a screenshot of how it works!
Anyway, once it was all cut out I added lots of inking and put the bits together.
For the base card I used a white card blank inked with Spiced Marmalade DI
I added a couple of different blue inks to the blue Bazzill for the bottle then coated it with Glossy Accents.  I then made the fundamental error of picking the card up to "put it in a safe place" and stuck my thump right in the still damp GA!
To cover up my blooper I added a bit more GA and put three "dew drops" in it.  Although I was a tad cross at the time I now think that the "bubbles" in the glass finish is quite effective.
Materials:
14cm sq white card blank, Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink, Bazzill scraps in blue, green and a couple of yellow shades, Cats Eye ink-pads (lime, blues, tangerine, yellow), Dewdrops (Water mix), rubo-on sentiment, Glossy Accents
Please pop over to the Daring Cardmakers BLOG and see what the team have been making this week - we'd love it if you joined in and turned the world of crafty bloggers into a Host of Golden Daffodils!  hehe We're also introducing our fabulous March Guest Designer - we absolutely love her cards and it's such a treat to be able to showcase her work on our blog.
The plasterer is here again - he was busy doing the ceiling when I took him a cup of tea earlier.  Next week the new radiator will be fitted and the skirting boards and painting will be done, we need to get someone to re-fit the carpet as it'll need a bit of a trim now that the insulation has been added and made the room a little bit smaller!  Then it'll be a trip to IKEA to get the new furniture - we've already done a plan and made a list of everything we want to get.  That lot will take quite a while to build and fit  (and fill) so we're going to be in our makeshift study for a while yet!
Well, as I didn't do any of the March Birthday cards I need yesterday I suppose I should stop waffling and get on with some of those!
Thanks for popping by

12 comments:

  1. Love the "shabby paint" feel of the inked background and the bold colour contrasts look fab! You made great use of that "embellishment opportunity", the dew drops look perfect on there!

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  2. This is absolutely stunning Kathy! Its great to see you getting inky xxx

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  3. I love the colouring on the daffodil, those orange tips really bring it to life.
    Sue x

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  4. Lovely card Kathy.

    ** Kate **

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  5. Wow Kathy what a striking card - the colours are fabulous.

    Love Lynda xxx

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  6. Your daffodil is just stunning, Kathy and I love the blue vase. Doesn't it go well with that bright orange.
    The daffs are just showing colour here and we've had a beautiful, sunny day today. I hope it lasts for the weekend.
    Glad all your work is going well.
    Have a great weekend.
    Hugs Lisax

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  7. Love the blue and yellow contrast of your card.

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  8. this looks like a painting Kathy. It is just so lovely!

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  9. Just a quick note to let you know that a link to this post will be placed on CraftCrave in the Cutting category today [05 Mar 12:00am GMT]. Thanks, Maria

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  10. That easter card is gorgeous, Kathy. Daffodils and crocuses always make me feel so happy.

    Lisa xoxo

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  11. Kathy,the colour combination is absolutely stunning. And look at the daff so fresh and so real. I love it!
    Zuzana x x

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