Lilies with love

 Hi everyone and welcome to my fortnightly blogged design team post for Visible Image. Haven't the days suddenly got so much lighter? My tiny garden is warming up and bursting into life and I can almost hear the plants growing. It's such a wonderful time of the year. Spring really has sprung.

 Flowers are such an important part of my garden and I love making floral cards.  My make today showcases the beautiful Lilies in Love stamp set.

which is on the website here

 This gorgeous set has coordinating dies available here. 

However today I am sharing a "one layer card" to show that if you don't have the dies and don't want to fussy cut you can still make wonderful quick and easy cards using this beautiful stamp set. 

This is what I got up to;

I  selected a distress ink background from my stash.

 (If you are not aware Visible Image now has a superb selection of Tim Holtz products, including all his distress ink range on the website. Check out this link. I am delighted to see this addition as they are my go to products I use when making). 

 I always keep a good supply of inked backgrounds ready for projects. It keeps the creative juices flowing when you have a design idea and want to get making. It is also much better to work on a thoroughly dry background. This one was made using blueprint sketch, salvaged patina and kitsch flamingo distress inks pads pressed onto my craft mat.  I added some mists of water droplets using my distress water sprayer. I then dipped in my card and dried between layers until I was happy with the colour mix. 

I stamped the lily collage and the thinking of your sentiment with Versafine Claire nocturne ink and clear heat embossed. 

Heat embossing also makes the colouring step much easier. I love the new distress watercolour pencils and use them to colour all my images. As they are highly pigmented they work over the top of distress inks. Any that strays onto the stamped image, because it is embossed, is easily wiped off with a dry cloth. I used the colours below. People use the pencils in many different ways but I pick up colour from the pencil using a fine damp paintbrush.

I started with the leaves

and then added in colour to the blooms. 

I really do enjoy water colouring and find it very mindful. 

When I had finished I distressed the edge of the background with my distressing tool and added some picked raspberry ink. 

For a finishing touch I added some sequins and gold pen details before matting it onto cerise and then purple card and finally onto a white card blank. 

Below is a close up of my water coloured lilies and the gold pen detailing.

And 1 final shot;

All the Visible Image links are listed below;

 Our kind, friendly and supportive customer Facebook Group is here ...it would be lovely to see you join us.  You will be warmly welcomed and see lots of inspiration from the DT and customers to inspire your own creativity. 

 I also organize a monthly artist trading card swap in the group.  We will be celebrating 3 years of swapping in May (don't miss this one as there might be a giveaway too!) Whether you are a new stamper or a seasoned one you are most welcome to join us. Over 150 members, worldwide, have taken part since it started. It's been such fun and it's so lovely to receive a unique piece of art from your partner in the post. The details and sign up for each swap are posted in the group on the 23rd of the month. There is no "monthly" commitment, just join in when you have the time and if you live in the UK can you choose to post to the UK only if that suits you best.

The main Visible Image Facebook business page is here

Visible Image also has its own You Tube channel here where you can see videos and Lives to give you lots of inspiration and ideas. 

Their Instagram page can be found here 

Pinterest here

and their website is here 

 You will also find me on Instagram here; @jane.tyrrell most days, where I share many, many more makes than I have the time to blog. 

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy these light filled spring days.

Bye for now,

Jane x