A Wreath for Watercolour Weekend

I haven't made a wreath in a while with my Art Impressions watercolour stamps, and after seeing inspiration on Pinterest, I decided to try something a little different from my usual style.

I began by lightly drawing a 3" circle in pencil on my Bristol Smooth Cardstock, and marked the points at which I wanted the sprigs to end.  Using my Tombow Dual Brush Marker in #312 Holly Green, and the two skinny sprigs from 5126 WC Foliage Set 4, I stamped them in several directions at each end of the wreath.  Using the largest sprig in the set, and #158 Dark Olive, I stamped the branch upwards from the lower right corner, several times, and again in the opposite direction along the lower side.  Next it was time to work on the cluster of flowers.

I used the triple rose cluster from 5258 WC Flower Set 4 and my #533 Peacock Blue marker to create the flowers, sometimes colouring only one or two of them.  I placed several more flowers sporadically around the wreath.  After dabbing them with my damp #4 paintbrush, the flowers needed to be darker, so I used my #565 Deep Blue picked up off my palette, to deepen their centers.  With the larger vines from 5126 WC Foliage Set 4, I stamped in greenery around my cluster using #373 Sea Blue - but the colour was too harsh, so I went over it with #249 Hunter Green, which was a better choice.  With the tiny Foxglove stamp from 4052 Flower Set 1 and my #606 Violet marker, I stamped it 3 or 4 times moving the stamp out slightly each time, to create trailing blooms coming out of my cluster.  After touching them with my damp brush, I added another few dots off the end of the flowers to make them appear to be a pointed shape.  Finally, to create the strings of flowers coming off the bottom of the wreath, I used the image from 5009 - WC Mini Flower Set that has 3 heart shaped flowers.  Colouring just one of them with #565 Deep Blue, I carefully moved it straight downwards and stamped numerous times without reinking (If I had moved the stamp away to reink, I would never have gotten it back to the same spot to continue).  I used my TT42 - Twintone Blue Marker - 42 Navy to draw in the stems, and to add dark centers to the roses.  Anywhere there were spaces needing to be filled, I stamped in a little greenery, or used my markers right on the image to draw in a leaf.

The sentiment is from 5266 - Greenery Invites, stamped in Versafine Onyx Black Ink.  I used my sewing machine to stitch the image to a black mat, and adhered it to my blue base with 3D Adhesive dots.  Be sure to check out the Ai blog on Saturday to see what Dot & Tricia have to share!