One Stamp at a Time – Down at The Farm – Let it Ride. Welcome to another One Stamp at a Time Blog Hop. If you are hopping along, you will have joined me from Martin Stone’s site, so I know you will have seen a pretty amazing project. If you have started with my post, then I hope you will continue along the hop. In either case ‘Welcome’. Our theme today is ‘Down at the Farm’, so is going to be all about the Countryside.

My project was inspired by a dream my husband and I always had of moving from a London Suburb to the Country. We had this as our dream for many years, but it wasn’t until about 5 years ago that we actually thought about making the dream come true. We now live on the edge of a small village in a very rural part of Oxfordshire. And we love it. It is very different from life in Suburbia, but is all good. The view from our kitchen sink is across the countryside and is not too different from the image on my card.

I chose to use Let it Ride as my stamp set partly because it reminds me of our view, but also because I wanted to try out the new Watercolour Paper, Fluid 100. I am really enjoying the new paper. For me it is a much easier surface to work on. The surface is smoother, so it is much easier to stamp a clean image. I used my Stamparatus so I could make sure the impression was as crisp as possible. For me, 3 times was definitely a charm. This gave me the crisp impression I was after.

I must state here and now, I am no watercolour expert. All I know is that unless you want the colours to run together, you need to make sure that neighbouring areas are dry before you add more water and colour. I find that for most colouring, adding plain water first is best, then ‘drop’ your colour into the wet area and move it around. To get some subtle differentiation of colour, I use some kitchen towel to absorb some of the colour. This works particularly well when you want to add light clouds to a sky. But watch the video to see exactly how I coloured the image.

https://youtu.be/YOAfTNpnL2o

The sentiment is a bit of a cheat as I took it from the Leave a Little Sparkle stamp set. I just had to use ‘Make Your Dreams Come True’, it was perfect for the back story of this project. Using a piece of Crumb Cake card cut at 1-1/2″ wide I was able to use just one side of the Everyday Label Punch and then just trim the other side to fit the card front. I layered the sentiment over a small piece of Burlap Ribbon to echo the Country feel of the project.

The tag was another piece of Crumb Cake card, this time cut at 2″ Wide to fit the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch. All of the Black stamping was done with Stazon so that it all had the same rich blackness. Had I switched to Memento I could have ended up with different blacks. I know this may sound strange. Surely Black is Black? Actually they are all very different, so it is useful to stick with the same one for a particular project if possible.

So there you are, my interpretation of Down at The Farm. More of a Countryside theme, but very personal to my story.

Now, please do continue the Blog Hop by clicking on the ‘Next’ Button to go and visit Mary Haugen in the USA, I know it will be worth the visit.

Dimensions

Standard A6 Cardbase

Watercolour Paper – 5 x 3-1/2″ (12.75 x 9cm)

Second Mat – 5-1/2 x 3-3/4” (14 x 9.5cm)

Nail Varnish Colours

Today’s Nail Colours are Reams of Dreams and Rainbow Wishes by Nails Inc. PLEASE NOTE, I get no commission from Nails Inc if you choose to shop from them using this link.