Thanks Craft Stamper

Hi and welcome to a post to announce the start of STAMPlorations new theme and sketch challenge.

This is my card for your inspiration,

This month our theme is 

and this is our sketch.

You can choose either or both if you would like. I went with just the sketch this time.

I took a small liberty with the layout, moving my sentiment strip a little further down the panel, but you can still see the sketch.

Last month I was lucky enough to win a prize from Craft Stamper, some Infusions ink crystals. They are like Brushos which I've used for many many years, well before they gained their popularity amongst the card making community. I used them with primary kids in Art class, who loved the way the crystals explode on contact with water. Anyway this card uses Brushos and the Infusions crystals in different ways.

To start I stamped and masked a bunch of daisies in Weathered Wood DI, using one of the Bloom Sketches stamps onto a panel of watercolour paper. Then with some artists masking fluid, I painted over the petals. I added some stems and leaves by using a brush and a draughtman's ruling pen with more masking fluid, I used the same technique here.

Then I mixed some Turquoise Brusho in a palette and Prussian Blue in a spray bottle with some water. Using a w/c brush I washed some plain water over the unmasked area then dropped in some of the turquoise mixture followed by a stronger mix on the left handside of the flowers. While the ink was still wet I sprinkled some Leaf Green Brusho and Emerald Infussions over the panel, then sprayed the Prussion Blue mixture over, mopping up the excess. When totally dry I removed the masking fluid. Then using some of the emerald green Infusions in water and Weathered Wood DI I painted in the stems and leaves and with some Weathered Wood I washed in some shadows over the white petals. The centers were painted first with Mustard Seed DI then a few crystals of Lemonade Infusions were sprinked over to give a bit of texture.

Not sure about the Infusions, the colours don't appear as intense as the Brushos, but I will play with them a bit more!

The vellum panel was stamped with the sentiment from the Celebrate set and embossed with gold EP wrapping it around the trimmed panel, before mounting it on a white base card.

OK, that's all from me but please check out the rest of our fantastic DT as well as our fab GDs for this month, Harriet Skelly, Swapna Patil, and Helen Gullett. All the  usual Ts and Cs are to be found on the main blog too.

I'd like to link up over at -

Anything Goes with a Stamp