My friend Chloe just loves toadstools and is always taking photos of them when she goes hiking, so these cute toadstool stamps were just calling out to me to make a set of cards for her. I had also rediscovered a set of frog stamps that my friend Steph had given me for a present years ago; as they are quite small they made the perfect combination to go with the toadstools to create some charming little scenes.
I started with one set of toadstools and used different colours that I had seen in Chloe’s photos, stamping them in Distress Oxide Inks. I stamped a large fern stamp in green to give a forest floor setting for the toadstools and then immediately thought that the little frogs would be a perfect addition. There are several different frogs: sitting, jumping and clinging to a stem so they suited my approach of trying to make a range of different images. I used Diamond Glaze over the cap of the toadstools and was pleasantly surprised when the glaze reacted with the oxide inks to give some interesting colour blends. The frogs had to have a bit of added bling with Diamond Glaze as well.
I had some other stamps of the red and white spotted toadstools that are so instantly recognizable and decided to carry on with creating different images on the same theme. On my first one I thought the toadstools would make a great umbrella for the frogs to shelter from the rain; and I experimented to see whether I could colour the ferns to make more of a ‘scene’. I did this for 3 of the cards and then reverted to a cleaner, simpler look for the remaining 3. I had stamped, coloured and cut out a range of different frogs so then had fun setting them in different positions on and around the toadstools.
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