Life is the Flower, Love is the Honey

I'm still having so much fun playing with my distress oxides, and was thrilled to hear that new colors will soon be released!  I cannot wait!  There is just so much that you can do with them, especially when combined with the regular distress inks.  If you haven't tried them yet, you need to!  

For today's card I kept it really simple, using two colors of the oxides to stencil a woodgrain pattern on some kraft card stock, then inking the edges and splattering everything with both oxide ink and black soot distress ink that I smooshed onto my craft mat and diluted with water, flicking it onto the paper with an old paint brush.  

I used an enameled print from the Limelight designer paper pad to die cut some leaves, inking them with the oxide ink before removing them from the die, and the enamel gave them a cool speckled texture.  The flowers were done the same way using coordinating colors of card stock scraps that were left over from other projects.

To give everything a little shimmer, I spritzed the entire project with Perfect Pearls, and colored the little bees with a glittery pen. The spray came out a little heavier than I expected, but it kinda makes me think of the way the garden looks after a Summer shower, so I'm trying to be ok with that!  I have found that sprays and splatters are an excellent exercise in overcoming perfectionism because they are not something that you can entirely control!  ;)  

Here are the supplies I used, all from Stamp Simply:

• Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain distress oxides
• Black Soot distress ink
• craft sheet
• paint brush (for splatters)
• Tim Holtz Woodgrain layering stencil
• Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms die
• Limelight designer paper
• Nature Sketchbook 2 stamp set
• Memento Rich Cocoa ink
• gold glitter pen
• Perfect Pearls
• silk ribbon
• Split Pea rhinestones
• glue dots
• Tombo Mono Multi liquid glue