Live Life in Full Bloom by Gill Humphrey

To make the background for this piece I used a 8 x 10 inch Gel Press and brayered on blobs of Mustard Yellow and Ocean That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints. I then placed two different stencils from the Daily Art Mandala Set B over the wet paint and pulled a print thereby creating texture on my plate. When this layer of paint was dry I lightly brayered over the top with a thin layer of That's Crafty Multi Surface Paint in Ivory before lifting the print that I was actually intending using.

Once the print was dry I cut it to the size of my That's Crafty! Upright and adhered it in place with That's Crafty! Glue.

I've stamped my gel plate backgrounds with AALL and Create Bold Alphas using a blue ink and first and second generation stamping. More interest was added to the background using background using the AALL and Create Splattered Numbers Stamp and Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide. I aslo added some script from AALL and Create Birthday Blooms Set the stamp with Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink.

I stamped the floral stem from the AALL and Create Birthday Blooms Set using Archival ink and separately on to a piece of the cut off gel press print with Versafine Clair Nocturn Ink before embossing the extra blooms with Wow Clear Embossing Powder. The extra blooms were fussy cut out and shaped using a ball tool.

The Craftyboard Mandalas were coloured using a mix of Ocean paint and Blue Pearl Ink and then given a coat of That's Crafty! Acrylic Wax I cut the mandalas up and applied to my base as shown. Before adding in the fussy cut flowers. I added some liquid pearls to the centers of the flowers.

Finally I stamped my sentiment on scraps of the gel press print and adhered these in place.

I hope this bright and cheerful piece brings lifts your spirits if you are struggling with all that is going on in the world and hope that you can find the strength to live by the sentiment of this piece.