Thanks A Bunch

Hello bloggers this card is dedicated to everyone who reads my blog.  Please feel free to leave comments or ask any questions I love to read them.

So on to today's card which is inspired by the gorgeous sunny weather we had yesterday here in the UK.  As it was such a nice day I tootled of to the allotment for a few hours to get a much needed job done.  Seeing all the flowers down there inspired this card.

This card began as a white 5x7 card blank.  First I used mustard seed distress ink and a handmade honeycomb mask and inked through to give the card blank some pattern and colour.   Next I began to make my bee using Spellbinders '2011 heirloom ornaments' die set.  I die cut the body twice once out of yellow card and once out of black.  The yellow die cut I cut into strips and adhered some of these onto the black body.   Next I punched out a black circle using a circle punch and adhered some googly eyes to it to form the head.   Using Spellbinders '2010 heirloom ornaments' die set  and black card I die cut two identical frames to make the wings.  From some yellow vellum I also cut two more of the same shape but this time keeping it solid and not as a frame.  The black frame and vellum were run through an embossing machine with That Special Touch Mask 'giraffe'.  The black frame and vellum were adhered together to make the bees wings.  The wings and head were adhered to the body and some hat pins were added to the head to form the antennas.  Next I used a mixture of different coloured green card stocks to cut out the foliage using Spellbinders die d-lites 'sprigs' and 'corner sprigs' die sets.  The flowers were cut from an assortment of card stock and papers with a mixture of patterned and plain colours using Spellbinders die d-lites  'blooms 1,2,3 & 4' die sets.  I mixed up the blooms sets and made up my own flower combinations adding a faux pearl to the center of each finished flower.   The foliage and flowers were then adhered to the card blank.  The bee was next to be added to the card.  Finally I stamped the sentiment using black Staz-on ink pad and Creative Expressions 'button florals' stamp set.   It was then die cut using Spellbinders 'back to basics tags' die set.  Whilst still in the die I inked through with mustard seed distress ink and then added the sentiment to the card.

Happy Crafting xx Hazel