Painted Cosmos Backdrop

 The Cosmos Backdrop was probably the 2nd press plate that I owned, and it is still my favourite one.

I pressed with Betterpress Black ink onto Canson XL Watercolour Paper, then pulled out my Gansai Tambei paints.

I need to paint more to improve my skills!  But am still pretty happy with this one.  I used a rectangle die to cut out the middle, then matted it with a slightly larger piece of black cardstock that I adhered back down with some thin foam adhesive.  

The sentiment is from the One Word Greetings Dies by Kristina Werner.

Teardrop Mosaic

For my first project with the March Betterpress Society plate set, Teardrop Mosaic, I did some painting!

This set includes the all-over grid pattern press plate, three sentiments, and four patterned designs in the teardrop shape.  I wanted to do a card featuring just the grid background, so I started off by painting a watercolour piece.

Using my set of Gansai Tambei paints, I did a pale turquiose wash on the entire piece, then with the panel still very wet, I started dropping colour around the outside, allowing it to bleed softly.  I made sure to keep the colour random, and made some areas darker than others - then added more of a navy shade in several places.

I also painted the same colours on a scrap strip of watercolour paper, along with a couple of complimentary colours.  I allowed the pieces to dry, and placed them under a heavy book overnight to flatten them.

Using Betterpress Black ink, I pressed the grid and one of the sentiments onto my panel.  *I had intentionally kept the center lighter, as I knew I'd be placing the sentiment there.

I used the Spring Florals stamp set from Pigment Craft Co. to stamp all the flowers and foliage onto my scrap piece, then fussy cut them all out.  The base was trimmed a little, then mounted on a piece of black cardstock.

I arranged all the pieces in opposite corners, then added a few silver pearls as the flower centers.

You can get a Betterpress Society subscription from The Papercrafter's Workshop.

Watercolour Tulips & Daffodils

I knew that I wanted to try painting this image as soon as I saw it, so I pressed a couple of them on some Canson XL Watercolour paper, and pulled out my Gansai Tambei set of paints.

 

This is the Yana's Tulips and Daffodils press & foil plate from Spellbinders.

Both versions are pretty similar, with slight variations.  This one has a softer background, and more red toned tulips.  I added some gold spatter, and a sentiment from the Golden Blooms set.

I stitched around the outside of the piece with my sewing machine, and added a few champagne pearls.

My second version has a moodier vibe, with a stronger background.

I went for more pink toned tulips, and used a sentiment from the Bouquet of Hugs set.

So much fun to paint!  You can find the set at The Papercrafter's Workshop.

Watercoloured Pinkfresh Studio

 This is something new for me!  Although I use watercolours all the time, I haven't really done anything on this large of a scale, and have been itching to use some of my new Pinkfresh Studio stamp sets.  Here is Floral Cluster:

I began by white embossing the image onto Canson XL Watercolour paper using my Misti, and then pulled out my Gansai Tambei watercolour set and painted each bloom.  This is a different colour combo for me!  I'm using yellow this year more than ever before, and I loved it paired with the blues & teal shade.

After many layers, I mixed up a yellowy/green shade which I added to the background, still keeping it fairly light, and added a few spatters of paint picked up off my palette.  I used the Hemstitched Rectangle dies from Spellbinders to cut out my image, then mounted it to my base with 3D foam adhesive.

The stamp set can be found at the Papercrafter's Workshop, you can see all of their Pinkfresh Studio products here!

Hydrangea card

I am posting on the Colourific blog today, and I'm sharing a card that started out as a wreath... but ended up being a hydrangea ( ??? ).  Scroll down for the details...

 I started out by stamping multiples of all three sizes of the outlined flower images from A6 Moderne Flowers, and a bunch of the outlined leaves from the A6 Leaves set on a large piece of watercolour paper.  My intention was to paint them all in autumn shades, fussy cut them out, and put them together to make a wreath.  But there was something about seeing 25 or so of the flower images side by side that made me think "hydrangea".  So my plan did a complete about take, I found a blue that I painted them all with, and got busy cutting.

 I gradually watered down the shade of blue that I was using, making some of the blossoms lighter, and lighter still, as I knew I wanted some to be hidden behind that would be darker, or in 'shadow'.  I used a bright yellow mixed with a bit of green to make up my limey/green leaves, varying the colour a bit on each one.  At first glance it looks like an awful lot of cutting!  But once I got going, it probably only took about 45 minutes - easy to do while you watch a little TV.  I added a dot of silvery Perfect Pearls to the center of each flower, and let them dry.
I ran a couple of rows of irregular stitching around my white cardstock piece, and then started building my flower from the bottom up.  I used a bit of adhesive just on the center of each flower back, so that the petals all curve up a little, giving a lovely bit of added dimension shown below:

By far the scariest part of putting this card together was adding those little blue spatters to the background - after all the work of stamping/painting/cutting/assembling, I was panicked that I might drop a big blob of paint onto my work!  So it was definitely a less is more situation, and I stopped after getting just enough spatters to cover it.  I white embossed my sentiment onto black cardstock and adhered it with a few pop dots, and called it a day.  Happy stamping!

Inspired By All The Little Things #37

I am the hostess this week at Inspired By All The Little Things - with my wonderful guest designer, Natalie Murdock!  Here is our inspiration photo:

 I knew that I had the perfect set from my days selling Close To My Heart - it's called Around The Block, and the houses have a bit of a gingerbread feel to them.  I white embossed the house onto watercolour paper, then tried to paint it to look like a gingerbread cookie.  I used my masking fluid to add some falling snow before I painted:

I hope you'll play along with us this week!  The design team have some gorgeous creations to share with you.  This will be our last challenge until the new year.