Cheerful Florals for Spring Birthdays by Anne Thompson

I hope you remember to set your clocks--spring ahead! In celebrating the arrival of spring, at least clock-wise, I decided that for today's card I would use stamps from the new Cheerful Floral and Bold Cheerful Floral clear stamp sets on watercolor paper so I could use some watercolor pencils to color the images.

I stamped the large floral stamp from CHEERFUL FLORAL CL5278 with VersaFine Clair Nocturne (black) ink on watercolor paper.

I used my Derwent Watercolour Pencils to color the image. When it was dry, I trimmed it to 5 1/4 X 4. I then pulled some color from a raspberry pencil onto a wet brush to spatter the white areas around the edges. I used a Hero Arts Raspberry Jam ink and a finger dauber to add a touch of color around the edges. I mounted the panel to a piece of raspberry red card stock from the BLUSH SOLID CORE CARDSTOCK PACK SP1012 that I had trimmed 5 1/2 X 4 1/4. I added the panel to a horizontal side-fold note card.

I knew I wanted to use this for a spring birthday card. I found a sentiment I liked on the new clear stamp set BOLD CHEERFUL FLORAL CL5279. (There are so many great sentiments on both of these stamp sets. This card design could be used for many occasions just by changing out the sentiment stamps.)

I stamped "happy birthday to you" in the lower left corner of the panel.

I liked this card so much that I made another one, this time backing it on a green card stock paper from GREENERY SOLID CORE CARDSTOCK PACK SP1011.

I want to stamp this image again on regular card stock and multimedia paper to try various other coloring materials--regular colored pencils, markers, pastels...and I want to switch its orientation on a card with maybe the tulip-like flowers on the left or play with vertical positions and maybe try it on a regular A2 side-fold or top-fold card. I think there is a lot that can be done with this stamp. AND there are also stamp and die combination sets for these two: CL 5278D and CL5279D!

Happy Crafting!