Shells, Hearts and Flowers

Hello
I hope you're keeping well and remembering we're not 
"Stuck at Home", but "Safe at Home"!
I've always thought that crafting is not only a pleasure, but a kind of 
therapy and I think those of us who enjoy and find joy and release in 
making something will probably cope better with our strange new 
way of life.  After all - just think how many more new projects 
we can start and never get round to finishing during lockdown
 - or is that just me?😂😂😂😂

This week at The Daring Cardmakers we have a fabulous new April moodboard from Shabneez to play with:
   
April's Elemental Challenge  

As it's the first Friday of the month I have been set the task of setting

 the Elemental Challenge.  I've picked a moodboard

 and you have to choose at least 3 elements from it.  

Colours count as 1 element! 

You can see what our fab Design Team made by clicking HERE

  There are so many choices in this one - I must have changed my mind about what to use at least 4 times before settling on what to use!  
In the end I chose the shell pattern background, the hearts and the flowers.  I was convinced I had a background panel die with that shell pattern, but after looking through all my die files and boxes it became apparent that I'd imagined it.  I'd set my hear on using that element though, so I found a google image of the pattern and made it into a cutting file for use with the Cameo machine.  It worked out pretty well - once I'd remembered how to do a 'double cut' anyway!

 Info

White base card 
Shell pattern panel resized and cut from white Bazzill card
More of the same card to make the patterned background piece - I used lots of different aqua tones of inks to 'draw' lines of colour across the card, then merged them together with a damp wipe.  Once cut to size I matted it onto a piece of aqua pearl card and added the shell pattern on top 
For the flowers and leafy swirls I inked up a few scraps of card and die cut the shapes using dies from the March Papercraft Society box
 For the hearts I wanted to echo the tiny pattern effect on the heart in the middle of the moodboard.  Rather than try to draw minute flowers I just used various dots of colours from my rarely used Promarker pens all over a piece of card.  It's pretty small this whole piece measures about 10 x 7cms

 When the ink was dry I went back and filled in some more dots and added some more, along with some splodges of gold paint to brighten it up.  I die cut some hearts from the finished piece and went around the edges with a gold pen. 

Once I'd used all these bits to make an arrangement I was happy with I glued them in place, then added a sentiment and some black and white twine to finish it off.  It seems that at the moment I just have to add a bit of
black and white to everything.  Maybe its something to do with how they really seem to lift a mainly pastel colour palette

 I have no idea, but I do love how it works....

Anyway, that's quite enough from me today, I hope you like it, and that you'll feel inspired to join in with us this week   
Thank You so much for visiting, have yourself a peaceful and safe weekend.
Please leave a comment, I really love seeing your messages! 

Happy Crafting!