Bees, fresh paint and tulips seem like harbingers of Spring as we humans come out of winter hibernation.  I had some of the paint brush die sets from the Spellbinder’s Paint Your World Collection by Vicky Papaioannou as well as the Picket Fence Studio’s I Bee Fierce stamp set by Nicole Peterson on my crafting desk and thought they went well together. 

Having die-cut four sets of paint brushes from three of the die sets, I set about assembling the brushes noting that the handle pieces are not interchangeable, but all three sets have the same bristles die. I glued one layer of bristles to the back of each handle and another layer of bristles to the back of the silver band. Next, I studied the packaging for decorative ideas on the placement of the tulips within the bristles. I glued in place the leaves and flowers once I had figured out their placement in the two layers of bristles. I decided to ink blend some pink Distress Ink onto white cardstock scraps before die-cutting the paint drips.  I applied glue the silver band layer just on the back of the band and then placed it on top of the handle layer matching up the two lines on the band with the lines on the handle. Once the paint drips were dry, they were glued to the back of the assembled paint brushes.

Following the design rule of odd numbers of elements, I knew I had to stamp three elements to make the card front flow. Another design trick is to suggest movement by placing things on the diagonal.

I stamped the front, back and inside of the card before I adhered the paint brushes to the card. Stamping is easy when you use a stamping platform with stamping tool to help apply even pressure to the stamps. The back of the card is stamped using a Technique Tuesday stamp set.

The front sentiment is “I am little but I bee fierce,” while the inside says, “Be like the bee… fly despite the risks.” The back of the card states “This is a random act of cardiness.”

The envelope back was stamped with another sentiment from the Picket Fence set as well as the smaller bee. It says “that hum you hear is the sound of the mighty bee recreating our world with love, song and perseverance.”

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

• Spellbinders – Cutting Dies by Vicky Papaioannou – Artful Brush – S3-439
• Spellbinders – Cutting Dies by Vicky Papaioannou – Artful Tulip – S3-440
• Spellbinders – Cutting Dies by Vicky Papaioannou – Butterfly Burst – S3-441 (Not used on this card)

Stamps

• Picket Fence Studios – Clear Stamp Set by Nicole Peterson – I Bee Fierce – A142
• Technique Tuesday – Clear Stamps – Random Act of Cardiness – RAOCa

Inks & Pigments

• Ranger – Jim Holtz’s Distress Oxide Ink – Abandon Coral
• Memento Fade-Resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
• Nuvo Highly Pigmented Watercolour Pencil – Golden Canary

Papers

• Heavyweight white cardstock
• Colored cardstock scraps
• Coated cardstock from junk mail
• Silver mirrored cardstock from packaging
• Brown #10 business envelope

Miscellaneous

• Cosmic Shimmer – Specialist Acrylic Glue – 125ml
• Sizzix – Big Shot PLUS die cutting Machine
• Fineline 20 Gauge Applicator & Bottle
• LDRS Creative – Stampendable Stamping Tool
• Tim Holtz – Tonic Studios – Stamping Platform
• Stamp Cleaning Cloth
• Large Blending Brush