Colour Blast by Bee Arty: Cacti are bloomin created by Tracey Thorne

If you haven't heard the new paper range Whispering Woods is ready for purchase and has been created by Sue Smyth. I've been lucky to get my hands on the range and there is a lot of variety in the papers with lots of scope for varying projects to be created.

I have created 'Cacti are bloomin' to show the versatility of the papers and the cut outs in conjunction with the stamps. The Colour artist dye ink & Colour shimmer dust I have used complimented the 12x12 layout nicely.

I started with a base of 250gsm white cardstock and to this I have added Colour Artist Ink in Bordeaux and with a wet brush have mixed a little water to it. I have then used the kiss technique whereby I have picked up ink from a base and kissed the paper leaving a little of the colour on my white cardstock. I have added a little more colour & shimmer to the page by mixing up some of the Colour Shimmer Dust in Lollipop with water and then used the same technique to apply this to the page.

I cut the centre section out of a sheet of Whispering Woods 12x12 Forest Floor and placed this to one side for later use when backing the photos. I have then cut down the white cardstock quarter of an inch off all sides. I have then used a soft yellow ink to blend the edges of the page before adhering the printed cardstock border to the white page.

With the remainder of the Forest floor printed paper I created a photo mat. I have cut them 2mm wider than my photograph. Before adhering to the photo mat I have inked the edges of my photo in black. I have chosen the little flower border stamp in the Whispering Woods Leafy Borders stamp set to create a border around the outer edge of the page. I have worked out placement of photos and added some texture to the page by using Texture paste and the Whispering Woods Sweet Flower stencil - this adds a lovely soft look to the page whilst still adding texture.

I have layered up one of the photos using cardboard so it has height over the other photo which helps with depth on the page and adds a visual interest. Using the 12x12 Whispering Woods Woodland tags paper I have cut 2 tags and placed them under my photos. I have also cut out two of the magnolias and 3 butterflies from the Whispering Woods extra's sheet - similarly you could use the 12x12 Imagery printed paper. These were placed at opposite corners and the butterflies were scattered on the page. I have also cut out the mushroom elves and used them on the bottom right of the photo. I have accentuated the base by adding a little black water colour pencil for shading.

I have stamped out the corner flower stamp spray from the Whispering Woods Celebrate Nature stamp set. I did this using Archival black ink on tissue. This was then applied to the page using matte medium. I have then coloured the leaves of the tissue stamped images using Colour Mica powder in Envy. I added a little water to this prior to applying with a small paint brush. A few final touches were a little black thread under the photo and adding the titles with a few of the fonts I have in my scrap supplies.

This is the final product. The Whispering Woods range has a lot of offer and is extremely versatile with the stamps and papers working so well together in a range of applications. I love how the papers tell a story on the page.