Cherry Blossom Musings – Build-a-Flower Sakura

I started off this little exercise because I was supposed to be making an sympathy card but I went a little off track and ended up making a totally different card, however, I did also end up with these lovely elements…

 

This is a favourite of mine, no wonder because hello, cherry blossom!, so I thought I would stamp out a few and then see what happened.  I started with some of the Altenew inks from the Cherry Blossom set (what else!) and then I used two of the Gina K inks for the leaves – Key Lime and Turquoise Sea.  i wasn’t really sure where I was going with is as I wanted something simple, CAS, and preferably one layer, so why was I randomly stamping these sakura and leaves on the cardstock?  Honestly I don’t know, wasn’t really thinking straight. Anyway, after I realised I was heading down the usual road of stamping with intention of die cutting, it was clear that I couldn’t use these for the card I needed.

 

I decided to continue with the die cutting just to complete the elements for something I could use later, plus they are really cute!

I love how the die cuts nice and close without a white border especially on the leaves.

For some reason some of my centres are not, um, centred lol, but I can fix that later

 

I added some Nuvo drops in yellow and some Ranger Glossy Accents in the centres.

So then I started over, with Beautiful Branches from Concord and 9th, which is one of my favourite sets and can be used for so many options and seasons. So here’s my step by step…

Branches first and please note the size of the cardstock lol, my subconscious had no intention of making this into a card since that is A5 size (ie half of A4)

I stamped the little acorn-looking things which are the base for some of the cherry blossoms, in Gina K Chocolate Brown, same as the branches.

Then stamped the cherry blossom in profile on top of them.

Then I stamped the other two sizes of cherry blossom and the little centres – omg I love these little centres!

Next came the leaves, which I again used the Gina K Key Lime ink (mini cube)

Then I painted on the little stamen for the side-on flowers, and touched up some of the branches, especially at the edges of the card, with the chocolate brown.  I did add some sparkle to the flower centres but I seem to have mislaid the photo, so I will upload it when I track it down again.

 

Oh and as you can see I used my Tim Holtz Stamp Platform for placement and to hold the card down, but I actually stamped everything except the branches with an acrylic block since they were all itty bitty stamps that I needed to repeat so that kind of job is so much quicker with a block.

If you want to see

 

Here’s what was used FYI

A4 white 250gsm cardstock
Beautiful Branches Stamp Set – Concord & 9th
Gina K Bubblegum Pink Ink – I have the mini cube
Gina K Dusty Rose Ink – I have the mini cube
Gina K Chocolate Brown Ink – I have the mini cube
Gina K Peach Bellini Ink – I have the mini cube
Altenew Build a Flower Sakura Stamps and Dies
Altenew Cherry Blossom Mini Ink Cube Set
Nuvo Aqua Shimmer
Tim Holtz Stamp Platform from Tonic Studios
Acrylic Block
Paintbrush number 2