Flourish

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope my American friends had a happy and safe 4th of July!  It seems after the 4th our minds turn inevitably to school shopping and the end of summer.  So today, I thought I would take a few moments to place myself on a imaginary beach somewhere with a beautiful tropical sunset.  And Our Daily Bread Designs' Bon Voyage stamp set seemed to lend itself quite well to this task.  With a bit of rich inks and a bit of shading...  a tropical sunset was born... and I didn't have to take a jet plane to see it!

I started out with a black card stock base (5.5 x 4.25 inches when folded).  I added a slightly smaller rich pink mat before my final black CS mat layer (created with ODBD's Pierced Rectangles Die.  My main panel started with plain white card stock.  I layered on several different shades of distress ink until I reached the desired sunset effect.  I then stamped the palm tree image on with a vibrant black ink.  While creating my image layer, I chose a bit of of white scrap and inked it up with purple and pink distress ink to mimic the sky.  I knew I would position my sentiment in that area and wanted the background to look similar.  I chose to cut/emboss it with a die from the Pennant Flags and matted it with black CS using the Double Stitched Pennant Flags.  I created my Frangipani spray with white card stock, inking the die cuts before shaping.  The leaves are from the NEW Ferns Die and Tropical Leaves Die.  I have shared the ink colors below for those that like the shades I used.  The blossom itself was made with the NEW Frangipani Die.

So here are the July release items you see used today...

and a few old favorites...

and here's some specifics on the coloring...

Memento Tuxedo Black ink
Distress Inks - Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick & Dusty Concord - Sky
Distress Inks - Mowed Lawn - Ferns
Distress Ink - Peeled Paint - Tropical Leaves
Distress Ink - Frangipani - Work Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade

Thanks again and have a wonderful day!