Flora and Fauna...

Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where this week, our theme is...Flora and Fauna!

For my project, I was inspired by vintage botanical prints and wallpapers and decided to create a card using stamps and dies from Tim Holtz!

...and here's how I created this piece.

To begin with I cut a panel of watercolour card to measure, 16 x 12cm and using one of the Flower Garden stamps, I stamped a pattern onto the card. I then gave a watercolor wash to each flower using Weathered Wood and Faded Jeans Distress Stains, picking out the stamens in the centres with Spiced Marmalade.

Once I was happy, I thoroughly dried the card before adding a wash of Old Paper to the background, creating a worn vintage look. I then flicked Gold Foil Spray Mist over the top to give the appearance of foxing on the card.

After adding a few paint scratches with gesso and some colour around the edge, with Vintage Photo Distress Crayon, I matted the card onto a piece of cream card, followed by kraft core Core'Dinations card and then wrapped some twine around the matted layers, securing the ends at the back of the card.

For the outer mount, I used a piece of canvas paper and applied a layer of gesso over the top to prime the paper for adding my mediums. Again, I wanted to create a worn vintage feel and started by applying a layer of Antique Linen Distress Paint and then dry brushed some Frayed Burlap over the top, blending the two paints together. Use an old credit card or ruler to add some layers of gesso to complete the background.

I then used Vintage Photo Distress Crayon around the outside blending with a wet wipe to create a soft diffused look. After a final inking of Walnut Stain Distress Ink, I matted the card onto white card, followed by a final layer of blue card. (Tip: If you haven't got the exact match of coloured card for your project, then you can always take a piece of white card and apply Distress Paint around the edge, which is what I did for this project.)

To complete this section, I mounted the flowery wallpaper background over the top of my vintage mount, adding some Dapper Design Tape onto the mount section to appear as if they are around the outside of the matted background panels. I also added some metal embellishments from my own stash to each corner of the mount.

Now to move onto the embellishments and the wonderful, majestic dragonfly, which started life as a piece of gessoed card.

After die cutting and embossing the dragonfly, I then started to layer my paints. I started with a layer of Twisted Citron before moving onto Peeled Paint. I then added a dry brush of Gold Rush and Emerald Green Alchemy Paint over the top to give a shimmer to the wings before adding a further hint of colour with the Mustard Seed Distress Crayon.

I added some more shading to the body using Black Soot Distress Crayons before flicking Picket Fence and Mustard Seed Distress Paint over the wings. I added two seed beads for the eyes and then to give the dragonfly a little more movement, I die cut a second dragonfly but cut away the legs and tail to leave me with just the wing section and coloured these in a paler colour way before adding them underneath the whole dragonfly.

Attach the dragonfly over the top of some floristry fibres and some cheesecloth which I dyed with a combination of Squeezed Lemonade and Antiqued Bronze Distress Spray Stains. I also added a small Remnant Rub to the bottom left hand corner.

Finally, I stamped the quote onto a piece of painted card, coloured the wording with a Distress Marker Pen, before matting it onto a piece of Core'Dinations card. I then used foam pads to attach it to my background.

I really hope you've enjoyed this project and as you can see from the completed card, there is so much dimension to the dragonfly and by adding the second set of wings, it really does look as if it's taking off from the background.

As always, if you need any further inspiration for this challenge, then you need look no further than our blog to see all the wonderful creations from all the very talented Design Team members and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for all your visits today and hope you all have a great week ahead

See you again soon...love Emma xx

Products used:
Tim Holtz Stamps: Flower Garden, Beauty In Simplicity

Tim Holtz Sizzix Dies: Layered Dragonfly

Distress Paint: Twisted Citron, Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed, Frayed Burlap and Antique Linen
Distress Spray Stains: Squeezed Lemonade and Antiqued Bronze
Tim Holtz Distress Stain: Old Paper, Weathered Wood and Faded Jeans
Distress Marker Pens: Chipped Sapphire, Spiced Marmalade
Distress Crayons: Vintage Photo, Mustard Seed, Black Soot

Distress Ink: Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain

Idea-ology: Special Delivery Remnant Rubs, Dapper Design Tape

Surfaces: Kraft Core Core'Dinations

Prima Color Bloom Gold Foil Spray Mist

Prima Alchemy Paint: Gold Rush and Emerald Green

Jet Black Archival Ink

Gesso

Twine

Ranger Craft Sheet

Scissors

Heat Gun

Blending Tool
Big Shot
Cheesecloth and canvas paper from my own stash