Anna’ Stampin’ Cave – Watercolour Birthday Blooms

Thank you for joining us for another Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge!  We’re so excited to be sharing this hop with you. The products used are all available in the current Annual, or seasonal, Stampin’ Up!®  Catalogues*. Simply use the buttons at the bottom of the post to keep hopping!

Today’s sketch was designed by very talented and lovely Louise from Whiteflag Designs, who sadly couldn’t take a part in the challenge today. But we hope she’ll be back with us soon.

For today’s card I’ve used Birthday Blooms stamp set but in a rather unexpected colour scheme. Since I can remember I always loved blue and yellow colour combination. Firstly, these were the colours of my town’s sports club Avia Świdnik. These were also the colours of my favourite radio station RMF FM, back when I was a teenager. And it’s not surprising that, when I first moved out from my mum’s, I repainted all cabinets in my new kitchen yellow and blue. Even a fridge, that’s how much I loved these two together 🙂 But enough of my babbling, here’s the card I’ve made:

I slightly alternated the sketch: I created landscape fold card instead of portrait one. I also decided to mirror the image, so the largest ‘panel’ is on the right side of the focal point. For the base, I’ve used beautiful but sadly underrated Delightful Dijon. I truly love its deep, earthy shade. I added two panels of Whisper White to the base: a square that measures 4″x 4″, and a strip that measures 4″x 1-5/8″. For next panels, I’ve used a square piece of Pool Party card stock and a piece of a striped pattern paper from Designer Series Paper Stack in Delightful Dijon. And these are accordingly 1/8″ smaller than Whisper White pieces.

Now for the watercolour. I stamped the flower on a piece of watercolour paper using Versamark, and heat embossed it in white. Using aqua painter, I added water to the petals first and started adding the colour. For the first layer of colour, I’ve used Pool Party. I started really light and added more colour along the way. Next, to add more definition to the flower, I added some shading with Marina Mist. For the leaves, I’ve used a combination of Pear Pizzazz and Wild Wasabi. And again I started light and built up the colour.

When I was happy with the flower it was time to create the background. I added water to my watercolour piece. I had to be really careful to not let the colours from the flower bleed into the background. I’ve used same technique like with the petals: I started with a light wash of Delightful Dijon and I kept adding more colour along the way until I was happy with the results. Next, I’ve used aqua painter to “flick” few droplets of water to the surface of the panel. I think will never get tired of seeing how ink reacts with water and create interesting organic texture. To jazz it up a little more I used Gorgeous Grunge stamp set to stamp some splashes in Delightful Dijon first, followed by Whisper White Craft Ink. When the panel was completely dry I adhered it to my card base. I kept the sentiment really simple: I stamped Happy Birthday from Teeny Tiny Sentiments in Basic Black on a strip of Whisper White and glued it to the card using liquid glue.

To finish off my card I decided to add Delightful Dijon to the centre of the flower with a blender pen, as I don’t own the markers. And the very last touch was to add Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush Pen to the petals and leaves.

I’m so chuffed how this card turned out: beautiful bold colours and textures. I just love how these blue flowers stand out from their deep yellow background. I really hope you like my project too.

Now, be sure to hop along and see more inspiring projects. Your next stop is Karen’s blog – go and see what she has made for you.

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day