Happy Wednesday friends! Spring is here where I am with lots of flowers blooming and bees buzzing! I hope you're seeing signs of spring too! My card today reflects the season with lots of bright flowers and colorful signs of spring! I've used my well-loved Busy Bees stamps and paired them with the newer Hexi Slimline Cover Plate Top and Base for my cheerful card.
I've been wanting to work on my no-line coloring skills so I began by stamping the flowers, leaves, and bees from the Busy Bees stamp set onto 80# Neenah with some no-line coloring ink. I used a plethora of Copic markers in all the rainbow colors to color my flowers. No line coloring does take some practice! My best tips are to take your time! Don't do this if you are in a rush as it just causes frustration (at least for me). Another tip is to use a fine point black marker like a Micron 005 to add in the details on the bees. Also, take breaks! I think the time and effort are worth it in the end and love how my flowers and bees turned out.
When I finished coloring I die cut the images with the coordinating Honey Cuts. For the stems, I just colored a scrip piece of paper with a green Copic and then used the stem die cuts to cut them out.
Next I worked on my card base. I used a few Background Blender brushes to ink up a strip of card stock with Mowed Lawn and Twisted Citron Distress Oxide Inks. Then I used the hill dies from the Horizon Slimline Borders Honey Cuts to die cut two hills from the strip. I layered them and adhered the two pieces together with Bee Creative glue.
I took an 8-½" x 7" piece of 80# Neenah and scored it at 3-½" for my card base. Then I blended on some Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink with a Background Blender brush. Next I adhered the Hexi Slimline Cover Plate Top and Base pieces that I also die cut with 80# Neenah. Then I adhered the hills at the bottom of the card base.
I used two stamps from the Buzz stamp set and stamped them in black ink. I trimmed them and added some thin foam strips to the back. I arranged my bees, flowers, leaves and stems onto the card front. It took me a few minutes to decide which ones to pop up with foam squares and which to adhere with Bee Creative glue! Before I adhered the leaves, I decided I didn't want the white edge from die cutting them, so I just fuzzy cut them out. Then I shaped the leaves with my fingers, adding a piece of a foam square near the center and a dot of glue at the leaf bases to adhere. (Tip: I love these foam squares and will often use my non-stick scissors to cut them into smaller squares as I did here!)
I love to get a bit of sparkle and those extra little touches in on a card when I can. I added sparkle to the bees' wings and the flower centers with a clear glitter pen. This I used a bright yellow Gel Roll pen to add dots to the flower centers.
I totally love how Honey Bee's products work together, whether they are older ones or new products! I hope you've enjoyed my bright, springtime card today! Thank you so much for stopping by!
