Swing Friends for Leonie

Hello lovely peeps, hope you are well.
Welcome to my new followers, I'm thrilled to see you :)

Did you watch Leonie's fab show on Hochanda last night?
The product launch continues this morning at 9am and there are more shows planned for 12, 4 and 7pm.
The stamps were so popular that unfortunately they sold out, but you can still get hold of the masks/stencils.

This morning's card is a little scene that I've built up with one of Leonie's masks, some of her stamps and an old Crafters Companion stamp (that I have never inked up before now, hang head in shame)

I taped the largest 'friend' mask down onto Neenah solar white card with low tack tape (this was before I got my Stick n Spray which would have made the job easier, lol).

Then I inked up the 'Friendship' stamp (Crafters Companion/Santoro) with black Archival ink and stamped it over the top so it looks as if the swings are hanging from the word.

Next I wanted to add some colour with my Distress Inks but I didn't want horrible black smudges on my work, so I carefully slid some scrap paper under the mask so I could wipe off the black ink safely.

I built up the colour by applying the ink with a dry baby wipe - I used  'Picked Raspberry', 'Spiced Marmalade' and 'Festive Berries' Distress Inks

I thought it looked unbalanced with the swings hanging from the word as it wasn't central, so I decided to add a tree branch for them to hang from instead. There's a very handy branch in the stamp set which I stamped several times through the middle of the word (with the mask still in place so it will look like the branch is behind the word)

I then used one of the floral stamps to add blossom to the tree branch.

 I've been a bit subtle with my inking so when I remove the mask the word doesn't 'pop' as much as I'd hoped. Still, I like the pastel look so I decide to draw an outline around the word instead.

The 'outy' stencil bit comes with the kit, so I just lay it over the top
 

and trace around it with a black fineliner pen  (I did the inside loops of the letters freehand). Much happier with it now.

I coloured the image in with pencils and added a bit more foliage to my branch. The ropes from the swings needed extending a bit too so I got my ruler in line with the rope, drew in two vertical lines and then drew diagonal lines between them to match the stamped version.

I cut the piece down to a bit smaller than A5 and doodled some lines around the edges.

 I made some paper flowers by die-cutting circles from coloured paper, cutting them into rough spiral shapes and then rolling them up with a quilling tool.

After matting my piece onto an A5 card (edged with Picked Raspberry DI) and glueing on the flowers, I also added a bit of greenery with leaves punched from green paper with a papermania punch.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:-
Sassy Studio Designs #329 Pastels
The Crafty Addicts #13 Anything Goes/Springtime
Creative Corner Spring Flowers
Melonheadz Friends Challenge LET'S GET GIRLY
Scrapbook Stamp Society Challenge Blog #89 Anything goes option Flowers
Lemon Shortbread #13 Anything Goes
Simply Papercraft #27 Anything Goes

Please take some time to visit the blogs of Leonie's other Design Team Members.
They are:
Nick - http://nickinbarnsley.blogspot.co.uk
Jane - Isleofcraftycreations.blogspot.co.uk &
Elaine - Cakecoffeecraft.blogspot.co.uk 

Thanks for stopping by, I'll be back this afternoon with another sample for you.
Katrina x