Floral Fantasy

Hi Everyone.

Happy Saturday.

Lou and I just returned from a two week cruise around the Caribbean where the sun was shining, the grass was green and the flowers abundant.  It was 82 degrees when we got back to the USA coast and -20 when we arrived back in Minnesota.  There was also a couple of inches of snow on the ground and I was wearing… wait for it…..flip flops!!!!  I'm looking out at the wetland as I type this post and the sun is bright and shining….. but it is currently -37.   mmmmmm….. let me see…. that's a difference of almost 120 degrees since we got home a little over 24 hours ago.  Think I might be staying inside today 🙂

I promised to share some of the cards that I made this year that didn't make it to my blog and, as I am craving some color – I thought a couple of floral cards might be in order 🙂

This first card showcases the Altenew Build a Flower – Anenome (am I the only person who has problems saying that word?!!!)

I don't often use a dark base for cards…. in fact, it is a very rare occasion when I use anything other than white.  However, for this card, with the bright violet, I thought a dark base would work really well and I tied that together with a black ink enamel layer that I put into the middle of the flower.

You can see that I added some white and yellow drops to the outer portion of the middle and a little glitter pen to the flower petals themselves.  I heat set some white embossing powder for the sentiment to tie the white elements together. 

For my second card, which is a card that was included in the set of cards for Card Care Connection, I used the Altenew rose stencil and 4 shades of yellow inks to get a subtle gradient look.  I always love yellows with this sentiment.

The gradients of yellow are subtle, but I promise they are more noticeable in real life 🙂

The next card uses the Altenew Sketchy Floral stamp and is another card that was included in the Card Care Connection charity cards that I sent.   I love the mixture of blue and lime on this card – two of my favorite colors 🙂

I then did a version using a softer color scheme that was a little cleaner as it didn't have the watercolor splashes.

And for those of you who visit my blog not just to see cards… I thought you might like to see a photo that I captured just before we left for our cruise.  I noticed a couple of the deer had settled down in the woodlands to capture some late afternoon sun… they are amazingly camoflaged:-)

I had to take the photo from inside as I didn't want to disturb them, so you can see the window screen… but how many deer can you count?

Let's get a slightly closer look:

There were actually 4 deer resting, but I couldn't get them all into the photo at the same time.  They stayed around for a couple of hours and then wandered off.  On the morning we left for our cruise (at 4.30am I might add) – we noticed that there was a big patch of melted snow in our front garden.  Very strange we thought, until we noticed two sets of hoof prints leading to and from the melted snow patch.  Our taxi driver, who was taking us to the airport, told us that he had disturbed two deer asleep in that spot when he pulled up to the house.  We've never seen them sleeping on the front garden before and I was amazed at how their body heat had melted the snow underneath and around their bodies.  But we are pleased they feel comfortable enough to take a nap!

On a personal note:

I'm off to my craft room – once I have warmed it up that is!  I'm hoping to get some card making in this weekend – let's see how a two week break has affected my mojo.  I'll be back tomorrow to wish you all a Happy New Year – and hopefully have a card to share with you :-)  In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipes:

• Stamps:  Altenew Build a Flower Anenome; Sketchy Floral
• Stencil:  Altenew Rose
• Inks:  Altenew and Holbein Watercolor