Helping Me Grow

I do love to water color, that much is more than obvious.  Since spring is everywhere I knew I had to do some flowers like the ones I see everywhere.  How about lupin?  Pretty sure I spelled that wrong, but they are the prettiest wildflower, next to the poppy of course, that are growing all around this time of year.  My husband even recognized the flower on the card, and that is saying something.

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I stamped the large floral image on my masked piece of water color paper in black stazon. The flowers were initially painted in marina mist, letting the ink run lighter as I went up the flower.  After, I added in hi-lights of wisteria wonder in the centers and across some of the petals.  The stems were done in pear pizzazz.  I did a touch more with the gold wink of stella to give it a sparkle.  That was both on the petals and the stems.  I know, it is hard to see in the photo, but it is there.

I painted the background in so saffron, allowing it to be lighter and darker just here and there.  I didn’t have a specific rule in mind, I let it happen.  I then used my aqua painter to drop clean water across the card to make water spots.  I let the drops sit there for several minutes then came back and dabbed them up with paper towels.  That removed ink and left the fun spots behind.

A simple bow across the front finished it off.  I used a piece of very vanilla for the inside.  I decided not to leave it blank and opted for a repeated image of the front.  Instead of black, I used so saffron stamped off and placed it right in the middle just like the front.  The idea is that it is light enough to be written over, kind of like a water mark.  It looks great.

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Have a creative day.

Moana

Balloon Bouquet Celebration

I finally got my back ordered balloon bouquet punch and I am totally celebrating!  This punch is just the coolest thing and totally worth the wait.  This will be getting tons of use, just tons.

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I may have gone a bit overboard with the balloons, and the cording, but I love how pretty it is.  One special person will get this card, and I think I know who it is.  Not everyone appreciates how much time can go into a hand made card, but those that do deserve every one they get.

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I used a leftover kit from Saturday’s workshop to make this project.  I stamped several balloons on the background paper.  To get the tone I wanted I stamped off once before I applied it to the card.  Then on my other paper, that I would be punching, I stamped off twice.  Both sets of balloons were also stamped with the dotted accents in mint macaron and gold encore ink.  I added gold to everything and sponged away.  Too cute!

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Watercolor Wings Just for You

Saturday mornings are usually busy with everything under the sun and then some.  I had the opportunity to chat with my oldest daughter while she got ready for work.  We put each other on speaker phone so we could keep moving along.  This is what I did during our chat.

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With all of the excitement of Sale-a-bration products and the wonderful spring catalog, it is easy to put aside all of the great product in the annual catalog.  This set, Watercolor Wings, has been a favorite since it came out.  I hadn’t had it put to use lately and thought that was long overdue.

I stamped my ink layers onto watercolor paper this time not quite sure how it would all turn out.  The initial stamping was a bit too detailed for the effect I was going for, but I remained patient and kept going.  I moved in with the aqua painter and began blending, but still wasn’t satisfied.  Perhaps because I had stamped off to get the tones I wanted the ink didn’t want to move around too much.

I thought things were a bit stark still so I came in with pear pizzazz for my background. That really helped out a lot.  But the butterflies still weren’t what I wanted.  I got a spritzer out and put more water on.  Which led to dabbing water off, spraying again, and moving along to the heat tool and doing it all over again.  I did finally get a result I liked, but decided to bring out the wink of stella pens, both the clear and gold glitter ones, and put in finishing details.  I think it all worked out, but I wasn’t sure for a while.  Sometimes watercolors can be that way.

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Have a creative day!

Moana