2021 Topic 8: Nature's Flowery Treasures with EKC {by Ellie Knol}

2021 Topic 8: Nature's Treasure

3 lovely ideas with Kay Carley stamps from Ellie today. It's good to see these different approaches and how they end up: bright, pastel and subdued.
~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Ellie Knol with you today, and I'm here to share with you the process of trying to capture the delicacy of the beautiful flower designs from Kay Carley. Three different stamp sets, three different approaches. 

I first planned to do some gelli printing for this theme; I spent an afternoon printing, yes. Unfortunately they did not awaken my creative spark to go ahead and stamp the flowers onto them. Yes, I was stuck.

I decided to go for what I wanted to do in the first place; clean stamping, coloring and continue from there.
 

My batch of colored A5 backgrounds in my stash came to the rescue, really! A good start, my mojo was back... 
The art journal pages each turned out so different. 

Flowers.. one of nature's treasures : delicate, colorful, beautiful!

These are the three journal pages I made. As said.. different stamp sets, different techniques. 

First stamp set I feature is EKC46. Fragile flower images, not easy to fussy cut, but beautiful! 

How to..
I used a stamping platform for this technique; left it in there for the layering of inked stamping until I was done with the stamps. I will only show how I did one of the flowers for you to see the process. 
Stamp the flower with a green shadow ink, just for the outline, and as a base....  

 

... then add color with a purple AquaMarker, layering the color again and again, using the stamped ink to color the image (with a waterbrush). Mist the ink with water before stamping; a little bit, not soaking wet. For a crisp image do not mist it. Leave to dry if needed in between the layers. Repeat the above until you are happy with it.   

 

Add blue touches of color with a marker and/or a watercolor pencil. 

 

Now onto the greens: color the stamp with a green Aquamarker, mist a little, stamp, repeat until you are satisfied. Leave to dry. I chose to stamp the flower with a light grey to make it pop more. Continue with the other flower by masking off the stem of the first flower(s). 

 

 

To finish it off I stamped the foliage with the same green shadow ink mentioned in an earlier step, and the butterflies with the grey ink; as shown. 

Splatter white acrylic paint onto the background! 

 

A close up of the flowers and foliage... 

 

Onto the second art journal page, which features (this brand new stamp set) EKC47.

 

For this second page I will just share some notes, no step by step photos.
As you can see the background I chose is quite dark. Stamping in black would not show up. 
 

I stamped the images onto white cardstock,and fussy cut them.  

To capture all details, stamp the images onto the background, then fill them in with 'white space' by adhering the fussycut images over the stamped flowers and leaves.  

 

Fill the circles of the foliage with a white acrylic marker. Splatter white acrylic paint onto the background! Yummy.. 

A close up.. I love the contrasts.. 

 

This next art journal page is my favorite, I think. The flowers from stamp set EKC48 remind me of my teenage time when I lived in a tiny village called Hekpoort in South Africa. Talking about Nature's Treasures.. the theme.. these flowers were growing beside the road .. naturally.  
I am sure we treasure anything we have an emotional bond with; one that reminds us of happy times. I treasure that happy time, for sure. 

 

 

As far as I am concerned this stamp set is a stunner, a classic, an all-timer. The flowers speak for themselves, they don't even need to be colored to be just beautiful, are so versatile; designed so perfectly by Kay.

For this one I chose to just add extra color to the flowers, as the background is not that dark and colorful. 

To make the images pop, add white to the stamped images too.. scribbly lines to match the design of the stamps. Splatter white acrylic onto the background, too! 

 

 

You might have noticed all the 'journaling' on the pages. Stamped onto white cardstock and adhered to the pages to finish it off, for some I rearranged the words, for other I left words out; to fit the page. 

So, there you have it; three journal pages.
I think I spoiled you with a lot of inspiration; tips and techniques to keep you busy if you choose to be inspired by it. 

 

Nature needs treasuring. It needs our love and care so our children and their children can enjoy the beauty of it, and learn to treasure it themselves. Memories of it will fill our happiness of days to come.
Enjoy creating with product from Paper Artsy that's inpired by nature, to make one-of-kind art that can be treasured, too!

Take some time to be creative today, every day... hope you have happy flowery nature, summer days. Enjoy and take care. 

Ellie Knol

Blogs: http://elliecreahoekje.blogspot.nl/
and     http://ellieatcs.blogspot.nl/ 
Owner of : https://www.facebook.com/groups/DutchArtJournal/  
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008479362838 
Pinterest: https://nl.pinterest.com/ellieknol/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellie.knol/