After the Rain – Spring Showers in the Garden – Mixed Media Tag

Hey friends, hope you are having a crafty day and enjoying the Spring weather (finally).

Today I have this large tag to share and just a few photos this time, not like yesterday’s mega post lol.  Keeping it simple today 🙂 Here’s a close up showing some of the shiny bits.  Apologies for the photo, some of them were taken as the light was fading.  I will try again in the morning, but for now… (UPDATE: added some new daylight photos, scroll down to see, can’t delete these as they are linked to challenges for now)

I liked the sound of the challenge over on Funkie Junkie – April showers bring May flowers – as it reminded me of the rhyme I learned as a child:

March Winds, April Showers
Bring Forth May Flowers

These days though, it seems to be wet and windy all the time lol!  Anyway despite the weather, I decided to make this tag so here’s how it came together…

After making the background for this AJ page a few weeks ago, I had all this paint left over so instead of just throwing it out I quickly brayered it on to some spare card and set it aside as I knew it would come in useful for something.  That something turned out to be today’s tag lol.  I decided to use that lovely green one in the middle as it just looked so happy and Springlike.

Then I stamped out some of the flowers from Flower Garden and Mini Bouquet, and the Field Notes set using some Archival ink in Shadow Grey. I used the same Mixed Media paper as I used before as I wanted the texture.

Once all the stamping was done, it was time to start colouring, so I sat in a sunny spot and enjoyed colouring in all the flowers.  To me these flowers look like echinacea and cornflowers and rock roses as I have all of them in my garden.  At least I think I do.  I did last year but who knows what will come up this year, and the echinacea only flowers every second year so I’m not even sure where that is at the moment.  Anyway, I coloured them as those flowers anyway, based on the photos I have from the garden last year.

I used some watercolour pencils I discovered during last week’s reorganisation!  They are WH Smith’s own brand and I really don’t remember when I bought them but it’s a tin of 36 and the colours are really lovely.  There is also some evidence that I have used them before, but I have no memory of it at all!  Anyway, I used them with a water brush to paint all the flowers, then I used my Inktense pencils with the water brush to paint the background for Field Notes.

After the painting was dry, I added extra details and highlights using my Polychromos pencils – you can see the difference in the photo below.  Also in the photo below, are some of my little bugs and bees that I had left over from an earlier project and are just what I needed for this one.  At this point I was considering using the full A4 size page instead of a tag but I decided to save this idea for later.

To make the flower stalks, I used a piece of scrap card, covered it with Archival ink in Olive and die cut them using the matching Sizzix die.  I really love how the texture of the paper affects the ink coverage to make it look more organic and mottled.

I cut as many as possible from that scrap of card, obviously too many for this tag, but they will come in handy for future projects.  I also cut around some of the Field Notes stamps and got everything ready to start assembly.

I glued the tag down on top of my brayered paper using Collage Medium, then cut around it with a craft knife.

Here’s the tag ready to be decorated.

I used Soft Gloss Gel and Rock Candy glitter mixed together and spread through this bubbly stencil, to create a shiny after the rain effect.  Turns out I don’t have a rain stencil.  I do have snow stencil but it wouldn’t work for rain so this one was my best option.

After the gel was dry (it does dry pretty fast but I gave it a quick blast with a hairdryer just to hurry it along) I stuck everything in place using Collage Medium. I used a couple of the words from the Field Notes stamp set and then used one of Tim’s stickers “collect beautiful moments” mounted on a leftover bit of the paper I stamped on. (UPDATED photo below taken in daylight next day)

The last finishing touches were to add some Glossy Accents to the flowers to suggest raindrops and then I edged the tag with Distress Archival in Vintage Photo.

And here is the finished tag! (UPDATE: photo from yesterday has been replaced with one taken in daylight this morning! What a difference daylight makes!)

UPDATE:  I took a few more photos in daylight this morning (15th) really is amazing what a difference good light makes – all the photoshop in the world can’t replace that!  Lily girl is very interested in all those bugs lol

The light is better for photos but not as good for showing the shiny, wet-effect details!

Really enjoyed making this one.  Hope you like it, let me know what you think in the comments!

Till next time, stay safe and #stayhome,

Challenges:

Funkie Junkie – April Showers Bring May Flowers Challenge –  challenge is to include something wet to represent rain + flowers.  My “wet” elements are the soft gloss gel through the stencil, and the glossy accents raindrops on the flowers.
Artistic Stamper – In The Garden Challenge – secret life going on in the garden, rubber stamps are the Tim Holtz CMS 215, CMS 269, CMS 396
Craft Stamper – AG + stamping – rubber stamps are the Tim Holtz CMS 215, CMS 269, CMS 396
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Spring Mood Board – Spring in the Garden
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – E is for – E is for Echinacea, Entomology and of course Empire of the Cat (and me! lol)
Creative Artiste Challenge #59 – mediums used collage medium, rock candy glitter, distress archival, glossy accents, watercolour pencils, inktense pencils archival ink, soft gloss gel, nuvo drops on the insects
Try it on Tuesday – Have fun with Stencils Challenge – I sure did, with this bubble stencil and the gloss gel on the background
More Mixed Media Challenge – AG with optional yellow – I’m playing the optional yellow, with yellow on background, yellow on bees, buzz buzz

PROJECT RECIPE:

Tim Holtz stamps – CMS215 Flower Garden, CMS269 Mini Bouquet, CMS 396 Field Notes, Sizzix Framelits 661613 Flower Garden/Mini Bouquet, Collage Medium, Rock Candy Glitter, Distress Archival Vintage Photo, Glossy Accents, Stickers,
WH Smith Watercolour pencils
Inktense Pencils
Archival Ink – Shadow Grey, Olive, Library Green
GSL Cuts Tag Set Super X Model: D92C
Mixed Media Paper
Finnabair Soft Gloss Gel
TCW Stencil 278 Circle Explosion
From stash: brayed background, scrap paper, palette knife, leftover Entomology insects

I started something new for April:

Since we are all stuck inside and can’t leave the house, I thought I would try and do two things:
1. use this time to finish any unfinished projects
2. use as much recycled materials as possible (I do this a lot anyway) but also not to buy new stuff!
So, with that in mind, I will note the above on any posts, if applicable.
UNFINISHED PROJECT – NO
RECYCLED MATERIALS – YES (scrap paper, leftover entomology insects, brayered background)

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