Hanami - flower watching

For the past few years we have lived in Northern Virginia and around this time of year - end of March, early April - there is the most wonderful display of Japanese cherry blossom very close by, in Washington DC.

The trees are planted all around the Tidal Basin near the Lincoln Memorial and along the Potomac river, when they all bloom it is magical! See some pics of the trees at the bottom of this page.

This is our last year in the US but I believe there is a hanami festival in Berlin where we are moving so hopefully I will have more reasons to make cherry blossom cards in the future!


You may have seen the beautiful Mondo Sakura set by Julie Ebersole that came out last year. It's been sitting in my stash for a while, intimidating me a little, anyhow, I broke it out yesterday afternoon.

I stamped the gorgeous flower cluster in Versamark ink on Bristol card stock and embossed in White Detail powder from Hero Arts. I then water colored in a variety of pink, green and yellow Arteza markers. 
My water coloring is far from perfect but it doesn't matter to me and I hope it won't to the recipient of this card!


Then I fussy cut around the right hand side of the cluster and foam mounted to the top left hand side of a card base. For a while I was toying with the idea of a colored base but ended up with a classic Neenah solar white 110 pound.

I stamped the "Hello" in Firefly - this is one of the newer green inks from Altenew, such a fresh shade. Then I stamped "beautiful" in Soft Granit from Hero Arts.


I am entering this card into Virginia Lu's March 2019 Show and Share where she encourages card makers to use their stash and make whatever makes them happy - this makes me very happy!


Yesterday afternoon I biked down to the Tidal Basin to have a look at the trees, peak bloom is predicted for April 1 so I knew it would not be fantastic just yet but I wanted to have a sneak peak before the big crowds this weekend. Two trees were blooming and many more are coming along and I am sure the next 10 days or so will be lovely!


3000 cherry trees were a given to Washington DC by the city of Tokyo in 1912 to celebrate the friendship between the two countries. Read all about the trees and the festivities at  the National Cherry blossom festival website.


Happy spring and I hope it involves some hanami!
Hugs,
Helen

Comments

  1. GREAT share, Helen! Your inking with each petal is so beautifully done! I love your composition and use of colors! Hope you are doing well. Spring is finally in here...Love that you showed us the cherry blossom...! So glad that you join the fun with my “Show & Share”! WONDERFUL!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for organizing the Show and Share, Virginia and for being such a generous and sharing crafter, I love your comments! It's a beautiful season and I am looking forward to more blossom this weekend.

      Delete

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