Art Deco Flowers

Do you ever finish a card and wish you'd done something differently?    This is one of those that I like for some things but wish I'd done something else with the background.

I wanted to use my long neglected Distress stains so followed this tutorial on watercolouring with them.  It's harder than it looks. 

I used three shades of blues and mauves for the flowers and two shades of green for the stems and leaves. Once I was done pulling the colours out, I felt I'd lost too much definition in the flowers so I went over the outline again with the stains and restamped - that is the joy of working in the MISTI!

The sentiments are part of the stamp and I did them at the end by going over them with the dew drop size Memento Tuxedo Black.

I trimmed my panel and sponged the edges, blending together Bundled Sage and Iced Spruce.  A bit of black splatter finished it off. I mounted the panel on fun foam for dimension.  In hindsight, I wish I'd done lighter sponging and used the shades of green I used for the stems.  Or left the sponging off altogether and just done a bit of splattering.

 

I'm linking it up with:

We Love Chocolate Baroque - "I Love..." - what do you love when you are creating.  I love trying new techniques, I love using Distress products, I love the Art Deco style of these Chocolate Baroque flowers, I love flowers as a theme for my cards.

The Paper Players - "A Colour Challenge"

 

Thank you for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps - Chocolate Baroque Wish Flower
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Iced Spruce and Bundled Sage
Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs
Size - 4.75x6.5"
Accessories - Distress Stains - Bundled Sage, Peeled Paint, Seedless Preserves, Faded Jeans, Milled Lavender

Two Cards for Challenges

First up today is a card for the Color Challenge:

There's something kind of muted about those colours that really appeals to me.  Here's my card:

I applied various Distress inks with my Clarity brushes. I'm really happy with the blend of colours. I flicked some water on it to add texture and interest, and when dry, stamped two of the three sentiments. The third sentiment I stamped on a scrap of white cs, die cut it, and threaded ribbon through the die. The panel is bordered with black and popped up on fun foam.

Next up, The Flower Challenge "Use Your Favourite Flower":

Being a keen gardener, I have many favourite flowers so this is my second entry for the challenge (could do many more if I had time!!).  This time I went with poppies:

I love all kinds of poppies.  This image makes me think of the bright orange California poppies that grow in a patch of leftover soil out in my back lane - every year they reseed themselves and look so lovely and cheerful.

I stamped and heat embossed the flowers and sentiment, then watercoloured and splattered with a bit of the orange.  I trimmed the panel and went around the edges with Distress Antique Linen.  For a background panel, I stenciled dots with Antique Linen on white cs, then used a cream cs for the base.  The focal image is popped up on fun foam.  A few stick-on pearls are in the centres of the flowers and scattered among the dots.

Thanks for coming by today!

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - Chocolate Baroque sentiments

Ink - Archival Jet Black, various Distress inks

Paper - white and black cs

Size - A2

Accessories -  Rebecca Baer stencil, purple ribbon, label die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - Penny Black poppies, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Antique Linen

Paper - watercolour paper, white and cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - detail clear embossing powder, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, dot stencil, fun foam