Happy Tuesday!
In my blog hop post (which is still open for comments all week, so check out the hop if you haven’t yet), I shared my love of Canada… but today I want to share with you one of my favorite things about living in the South- Fireflies! I was delighted the first time I saw a real live lightning bug and I still can’t get enough. It’s so serene relaxing outside and watching these little guys light up the sky! So naturally, I had to pick up this cute little stamp set by Lawn Fawn. You really can’t beat the value in these mini sets since they include a variety of stamps and almost always include a punny sentiment 🙂 A handy matching die set is also available.
I wanted to try a couple different things with the stamps, playing around with what sort of ‘glow’ effect I could achieve (since I didn’t grab a bottle of the fun glow in the dark embossing powder. yet.) First, I stamped on a kraft colored tag and added some additional stamping with Distress Oxide Inks. I then colored my image with a combination of Scribble Sticks and watercolor pencils until I got a look that popped. There are little solid circles and a heart in the set which I stamped in yellow oxide ink to enhance the glow effect.
For the card, I trimmed a piece of watercolor card stock to size and stamped with Black Archival Ink on it. I used Scribble Sticks again because I thought they would be the easiest way to get the colorful sky effect I was going for. I wanted my card to resemble the sky at dusk, since that is when you start seeing fireflies appear! I colored the bugs first, then shaded in the sky afterwards. Each part started with scribbles and finished with a water brush. Here’s some progress pics…
And the finished card… the majority of the sky is a bit darker blue than it shows in the photograph, though I probably should have added another layer as I look at it now…
On both projects, I glossed up the glowing bug bottoms with some Nuvo Jewel Drops in Key Lime– it’s translucent so added a hint of color to the yellow. On the card, I added a few white glossy dots with Nuvo Crystal Drops. It was a new bottle and I forgot about air bubbles, so a few were larger than I anticipated. oh well!
I added a bit of thin yellow jute to finish off both projects. They’re very simple, but it was fun to experiment a bit with colors. I think they’ll be a really fun addition to envelopes, and they’ll probably show up around my journal/planner pages through the summer as well!
Have a great week! Remember to leave comments along the blog hop and check back here on Friday when we announce the prize winners!
Inky hugs,
Tara
Hi Tara,
I love fireflies too! I have wonderful childhood memories of fireflies lighting the night sky. We’d pack up at schools end to go to our camp for the summer, bomb fires, fireflies and the heat . Love the set and what you have done with it.
Karen