Flowers, buds & colour - Spring has arrived!

Hi, Jo here with a project inspired by the arrival of Spring here in the UK.

I wanted to use JOFY stamps in a different way - usually I create a 'line' of the flower images or use as single stem, but for my project this month I have created a stamped masterboard.  I really enjoy creating these - I created one for a magazine article a while ago and have been itching to make a JOFY one... and here it is:

I looked through all the JOFY sets looking for images that would sit well together - looking for small, medium and large image - lots of variety...
When creating a masterboard like - that will (sadly) be cut up and used on cards etc its important the images don't have an obvious orientation & can be stamped in any direction (without a 'right' way up).. it makes the finished masterboard more versatile.
When I design the stamp plates I try to include images of different sizes & some images that are really quite small - great for 'space filling' on bigger designs such as a masterboard.

Here are the images I chose:

Left to right top:  small leaf JOFY15, large star flower head JOFY24, bud sprig JOFY14, pointed flower JOFY24, small seed head (in green) JM14,
Left to right bottom: leaf JM12, flower with dots (part of a border image) JOFY13, large square petal flower JOFY22,

Once the images are chosen I start thinking about colour - I like to colour in with pencils - I can get a nice sketched shading effect with them.

If you'd like to create a stamped masterboard coloured with inks, paints or pens then go ahead - work with what suits you.

Below is a test I created to see if a background stamp would help the masterboard - on left is the original board, on the right same board but with the mesh stamp: filling space but not distracting from the main images... I decided against the mesh & replaced it with the bud stems.

Colours are chosen, stamps are chosen - now to get started.  I stamp the biggest images first and then fit all other images in among them.

The masterboard is created on a sheet of A4 Smoothy Card, and all images are stamped in Black Archival.

Layer 1: large flower

Layer 2: Star-centre flower.  I trimmed the stem off this flower so I didn't need to keep masking it off (gave a cleaner image).  I rotated the stamp each time to avoid a repeat pattern appearing.  A few of the images overlap but this is intentional - if all the images are separate they won't 'tie' together - I want the images to be linked.

Layer 3: Bud stems.

(I'll show you each image used now as each new image will get trickier to see in amongst all the building images)

The stems are quite long so I only inked the stamp up 1/2 way down (rather than cut it off).  These long stems will help with bring the images together.

Layer 4: Pointed flowers:

Layer 5: Leaf 1

These flowers were also stamped on green spotted paper - I plan to match up the images later on.
I also stamped the star-centre flower onto book text with the same plan in mind.

Layer 6: Mini leaf, these are a great space filler.

Layer 7: Daisy & spots.. another great filler image - and ideal placement for bling if required!

Layer 8: Seed head - the only image not stamped in black.. at this point the masterboard was looking quite 'busy' (as it does when everything is stamped in black) so I didn't want to add any more black images but I did need to fill some spaces so I stamped the seed head in Olive Green Archival (stamped using 2 generation to make is slightly paler).

Phew that is a lot of stamping!... now for the fun part - the colouring in!  I use FaberCastell Water Colour pencils (but don't add water).  Each style of flower is painted in a given colour so that a printed effect is created - all square ended flowers are coloured purple, pointed flowers yellow, star-centre flowers are pink etc.

Where the images overlap - such as the 2 flowers in the top right hand corner of the photo below- I colour one and stop when it meets the other (as with purple flower below).. this will give the design depth.  I colour all the flowers first and embellish later on in the process.

 I coloured the small pointed leaves in pencil but really wasn't happy with the colour:

 ... so after a quick 'compare & contrast'  test (below) I decided to cover all the small leaves in leaves stamped onto book text coloured with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

... which gave a much nicer overall look

 .. then the bud-heads were coloured/shaded in two colours.

Phew even more colouring than there was stamping - it takes a while to colour and shade everything but I love the overall effect of the masterboard.

Some added details:

I drew little circles in pen to fill very small places (coloured in purple to match the flowers), and used pink pencil to colour the centres of the small daisies. :

The centre of the star-centre flowers were embellished with lines of shading around the star (to lift them) and book text stars:

Here is the finished masterboard again:

I photocopy/scan the masterboards I make - to refer to at a later date and because they're so pretty I want a copy of it before I cut it up.... because yes, I'm going to cut it up and use it to decorate cards, tags... maybe even a scrapbook page... this will be my April's blog post.. so I hope I've inspired you to created a stamped masterboard and in April I'll show you what I made with mine and give some ideas to make with yours.

I look forward to seeing what you create.

If you would like to join in our weekly challenge with any of this week's guests who have blogged since Sunday night, then join in to link up your creativity HERE.You will go in the draw to win PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by17:00 (London time) Sunday 23rd March 2014