I am way too early for John’s birthday but I was aiming to get it to him in Greece  just a few days before his birthday but I sent it rather too early.  C’est la vie!  John is one of these people who can turn their hand to anything they try and gardening is no exception.  He put in an irrigation system and planted a climbing Jasmine over a home made pergola, and planted some citrus and olive trees – they are all thriving!  Now I think I am right in saying that his newly planted olive tree gave him 23 olives in it’s first year so I drew in 23 Kalamata olives onto the tree.  Well done John and here’s to a very happy birthday when it comes!!

The background paper is a napkin which I peeled apart and used only the top layer.  I stamped the card first with the sanded background image then applied some watered down PVA glue which the napkin was then put over and smoothed out a little.  I left a little bit of texture in it then applied more thin PVA over the top.  The colour from the stamped background gets gently dragged over the card in the PVA which gives a lovely soft colour.  As the napkin goes almost transparent you can see the background stamp through it.  I was also playing with my Stampin up air puffer to do the soft splatters over the tag.  I like that soft effect so I will definitely be doing that again.

Inks:  Stampin up Old olive and Always artichoke,
Card:  Ivory , Old olive, black, Olive patterned napkin
Stamps:  Stampin up Sanded background stamp and Hopeful thoughts (tree), Aspects of design Gardening 2
Other:  black pen, green Marvy pen, Stampin up air puffer, ribbon, black linen thread, diluted PVA glue