Twofer Bees

I've been busy as a bee trying to create a few cards for some of my favourite challenges out in blogland. I had so many ideas buzzing in my head that it's a miracle that I actually managed to create these two cards featuring bees before the linky closes.

Since I needed a card for someone who recently moved house, I reached for the products from the Apple Blossom card kit that I purchased a while back. I had not used the kit yet, except for creating a few panels with the hexagon stencil that was included. I stamped the bee house using distress inks and then used the same inks and a Zig blender pen to colour it in. After fussy cutting the image out and placing it onto my panel, I decided I wanted a bit of a darker colour for added depth and achieved that using a Tombow marker. After die cutting my panel using a stitched rectangle die (SSS) and determining the placement of my little house, I added some splatters using Ground espresso DI). Once those were dry, I stamped the bees in Versamark onyx black and heat embossed using clear embossing powder. I coloured in the bees using a little ink and the Zig blender brush. For the wings, I used a tiny bit of Broken China DOI, to cover up the hexagons underneath.

I added my panel and tree using double-sided tape and then adhered my sentiment strip (from the papers in the kit) to a strip of cardstock and then popped it up using foam tape.

I created my twofer for the current Twofer card challenge

I'm also linking up my bee house at:

STAMPlorations Mixed Media - Anything MM with a stencil

Addicted to Stamps - For a boy/man

I wasn't sure what to do for the second card until I spotted the card that Mindy Eggen posted on the Neat and Tangled blog this weekend. I still had ombre inking on my mind AND the stamp set from the kit out, and so this card came together very quickly in the end.

I masked off the top part of my panel and then blended distress inks in Ripe persimmon, Carved pumpkin and Fossilized amber using make-up blending brushes. I used my MISTI to repeatedly stamp the small floral border from the stamp set and then stamped the bee 3 times. I die cut my panel using the largest of thet stitched rectangle dies (SSS) before stamping the sentiment, for which I usded one of the tiny sentiments from my new SSS stamp set. I though the uplifting sentiment went perfectly with the warm colours and dancing bees. I popped up my panel using fun foam.

I'm also linking up this card at:

CAS Mix Up - Ombre, stamping + 

masking, ink blending, die cutting

Stamping Sensations - Show your true colours

Penny Black and More - Blooms, butterflies and/or bugs

Inkspirational - #189 Garden