In the early days of America, and probably before, farmers used small notebooks to keep track of their crops and the day-to-day activities on their farms. The fact that many farmers didn’t read made the images they drew in their notebooks an important and valuable asset for their homestead. The small drawings of seedlings, pests on the land, and random marks reminded them of what they could expect from year to year. These were some of the early field notes. Of course naturists, scientists, and researchers still use small notebooks to record their observations of whatever they are studying. And, traditional Field Notes have become popular

Taylored Expressions recently aroused a love of Field Notes with a fun kit of card making tools titled just that, Field Notes. Florals are often a favorite of card making enthusiasts but I will have to admit I haven’t been much of a fan because I just can’t seem to make them consistently nice. But this line of stamps intrigued me and once again I decided to give florals a try.

I bought most of the items from the Field Notes (Set 1) line and started out by mimicking a card that was shared on the Fans of TE Facebook page (thanks Teresa Dolan for the outstanding idea). 

For my first card (the “copy”) I used Daniel Smith Watercolors (cobalt teal blue, spa green, burnt umber, and Aussie red gold) to watercolor the flower. I cut the flower using the Sketchbook Florals die and created a background using the Frayed Edge masking stencil and snippets from the Field Notes sentiment set. I propped the flower up using Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam strips and splashed the project with walnut ink before adhering it to an A2 background and card. And, don’t forget to generate interest in the contents for your recipient by adding a sneak peek of the artwork to the envelope. 

My second card was also created using Field Notes elements but I decided to use my new favorite and chose a mini slim side-fold card. I enjoyed using watercolors for the first card and decided to switch it up just a bit  but still used a watercolor technique (some call it faux watercolor). I used only two colors to create the flowers (Marvy LePlume II markers in #4 green and #20 magenta). I placed the stamp in my Misti and colored the flower portion of the stamp with magenta ink. After stamping the image onto Stonehenge warm white paper I colored the stamp with green ink covering the stem, leaves, and the center portion of the stem all the way up the stamp. 

For the faux watercolor technique, I used a wet paintbrush to pull the ink from the edges of the image being careful not to mix the green too far onto the buds of the flowers. To highlight the lighter magenta color I began at the top of each bud with the wet paintbrush and pulled the color down to meet the darker magenta that had had been created when the magenta and green had mixed.

I die cut the flowers and then cut my background pieces using patterned paper and the largest of the Petite Scallop Mini Slim Stacklets dies for the base and a rectangle cut from the Stonehenge paper using the Stitched Mini Slim Stacklets. I cut two small tags from the Sketchbook Florals set and stamped the white one with a Sketchbook Florals sentiment.

I splashed walnut ink on the Stonehenge rectangle and the flowers. After letting them dry I then assembled the card onto a mini slim side-fold base, first attaching the sentiment tags with a very small button brad and finally adding some Stampin’ Up All The Trimmings embellishments to the card.

I have to admit, I have never been a fan of floral cards. That’s partly because I find it difficult to make florals look nice. That all changed with this stamp set and I would highly recommend trying the Field Notes products. Better yet, check out the new Field Notes #2 Kit! (I don’t get any kickback for any of the links that are included on this post, I just like the products and wanted to make it easy for you to check them out and/or buy them too).