Spring Blossom

Hi there

Sorry I've been absent on here since last weekend.  It's been a busy week at work and I've just been crashing in the evenings but have had lots of ideas for cards flying around in my mind but haven't managed to put any into practice until now.

Today I'm back with my entry for the latest Clearly Besotted Challenge where the theme is Spring.  I absolutely adore Stephanie's stamps so was glad to ink them up this morning.  The one thing I love about Spring is the trees full of blossom so that's what I wanted to attempt to portray on my card.  I saw this gorgeous card a while ago on Caryn's blog, Glitter Me Silly, and had a go making my version of it, using a different flower stamp for the blossom.

I chose a panel of pale blue cardstock as I wanted to portray the blossom against a blue sky.  I stamped the branch image three times using Memento ink, this stamp being from the Clearly Besotted 'Paired Up' stamp set.  I then used the little flowers stamp from the same set to create the clusters of blossom.  As I was using pigment ink for this I was hoping the white would stand out enough but it didn't so I quickly grabbed some white embossing powder before the ink dried.  I used pink ink for the other tree branches and used clear embossing powder this time.  I then nestled the sentiment between the branches.  I fiddled around for a while with some twine and ribbon which I was going to tie around the bottom of the panel but it just wasn't working so I decided to leave it as it was, almost a one layer card.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Paired Up and Design a Tree (sentiment)
• Ink: Memento - Desert Sand; Versa Color - White and Orchid; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Embossing Powder: Stampin' Up - White; Rubber Stampede - Clear
• Cardstock from stash

I am also entering this card into the following challenges:

Creative Card Crew - Challenge 59 - Spring
A Gem of a Challenge - Challenge #117 - Spring is in the Air
Oh La La Creations - Challenge #154 - Easter/Spring
Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #91 - Anything Goes
Crafty Catz - Challenge #227 - B is for... - For my card, B is for blue, branches and blossom
Fusion Card Challenge - I took my inspiration from the photo - colours blue, pink and white and the flowers

That's all for now folks, I hope to be back with more over the Easter weekend.  I hope you're all having a lovely Easter break, I know I'm very grateful for a four day rest!

Take care