Winter Garden

If you haven’t seen the incredible artistry of Peet Roeven you need to click over to her blog right now. Her attention to detail and precise fussy cutting is impressive. My card today is inspired by a recent card of Peet’s, mine is nowhere near as detailed as hers but I was able to show off this pretty ‘winter garden’ stamp in a circular setting just as she did. I never think of doing circle cards but the stamp is circular so it does make sense and Peet’s beautiful card nudged me to give it a try.

I worked on Koh-I-Noor Bristol Smooth Bright White Paper and embossed the image in platinum embossing powder. I was keen to see how the Zig clean color real brush pens worked on bristol as many artists prefer bristol to watercolour paper for the zig pens. The results were very pleasing the pens blend beautifully on bristol. I wanted pale pink flowers and tried light pink and tea rose then ended up using both for a blend from the slightly bolder pink to the paler tea rose. The berries I coloured with wine red, the rounded leaves with light green and the holly leaves with a blend of wine red and light green. I used brown for the pine cones and blended it with water for variation in depth. The needle leaves are olive green. The zig pens are very highly pigmented so a little goes a long way. I was able to colour the elements on the panel by applying a small about of ink then blending it to fill the space with a wet brush.

I die cut the image with a large circle die, used the next size up for the pale pink mat and the next size for two circles to form the card base. The back of the card base has a score line less than a centimeter (half inch) from the top so the card can be opened without the patterned panel having to bend at all. I also cut a very small margin off the bottom of the back panel so the card would stand upright on a small flat section. I embossed the sentiment from PB ‘Christmas Sentiments’ set, matted it then die cut with a circle die so it would line up with my circle panels.

What is the most unusual shape you have used for a card? I have to admit it is just about always rectangles and squares for me.

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