A Botanists Notes by Rachel Harries

Todays post is inspired by the beautiful new 'Dried Botanicals' stamps from Lynne Moncrieff. I was very fortunate in being able to make samples for the recent 5th Anniversary show on "The Craft Store"this week and I just couldn't get enough of these gorgeous stamps and had to use them for my blog post.

I started with a That's Crafty! MDF Tag and a That's Crafty! Craftyboard Tag.

I added a thin coat of That's Crafty! White Gesso to both tags and then stuck some fragments of old magazine that I have to both.

I then used some That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints with a dry brush, being mindful not to use too much paint.

I then took my Fern Green Archival Ink Pad and stamp some of the images from these beautiful stamps on my back ground.

I then used some That's Crafty! Multi Surface White Paint and Dinky Dianthus and Dinky Tiny Feather Stencil.

I then used Pentart Transparent Cracking Gel over the tags.

Once that was fully dry I applied a coat of Lazur gel in Walnut which I then wiped off so that it settled into the cracks giving a nice vintage feel.

I then took a Chipboard Fern Leaf which I painted with That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paint in Lime.

I took a piece of Tea Bag Paper which I first crumpled up to create a little texture for the colour and then applied a little Walnut Flat Ink Spray and a little Walnut Distress Ink. Once it was dry and screwed up a tiny piece of kitchen role and popped it in there tying a piece string around it to create the base for the fern.

I then ripped a little of the Eco Botanical paper and stamped one of the images onto a piece of ripped tea stained paper which I stuck to the page with a Hinge Clip, I also adhered the fern.

I then took a small piece of calico and stamped a word from the stamp set on it which I adhered to my tag.

I then stamped some of the elements onto a piece of tea stained paper and added it to the smaller tag to which I also added a small piece of stamped calico to and a rusty nail.

I then added a piece of twine to join the two tags together.

I then added sisal to the top of my fern pouch and "taddah"