Exclusive Poinsettia Set!

I am SO IN LOVE with this exclusive Art Impressions stamp set for Scrapbook.com!  It's called 5206 SBC Poinsettia Exclusive Set, and is just lovely to work with... stay tuned, as you'll be seeing more from this set in the days to come!

I used the largest image in the set, stamping it twice on my Canson XL Watercolor paper with Versafine Onyx Black ink, and then embossed them both with clear embossing powder.  For this project, I used my Tombow Dual Brush markers - scribbling them onto my palette, and picking them up with a damp paintbrush after mixing varying amounts of water.  I use a "glazing" technique, starting by colouring each section of the image with the lightest colour, then layering on more colours, getting darker each time.  All the poinsettia petals got a pale wash of #991 Light Ochre, and then I began adding three different layers of #837 Wine Red - a pale pink layer, and then 2 more, concentrating the colour near the veins.  I wanted to warm up the tips of the petals even more, so I added #946 Gold Ochre, which gave them more of a peachy glow!  The leaves were done in the same manner, starting with #991 to give a yellow undertone, then layers of #158 Dark Olive, #249 Hunter Green, and finally a mixture of #565 Deep Blue & #249 Hunter Green for the darkest tones.  I kept the holly greenery light & bright using #991, then #126 Light Olive.  I used my artistic license to colour the holly berries with #533 Peacock blue and shaded with #565 Deep Blue (red berries just wouldn't look right!)

Since the image is stamped in black, it meant that all of the ferns and delicate foliage remained black, so I painted a pale green wash behind them to suggest greenery, and then continued to paint a wash of blue & green, just to break up the plain background a little.  I used one of the sentiments from the set, and stamped it with my Misti.  The image is matted with some metallic blue cardstock which really picks up the colour of those berries!  I adhered it to a moss green card base using 3D pop dots.

Click here to find the stamp set on the Scrapbook.com site!

I did a second version, omitting the warm yellow tones, but otherwise using the same techniques and I added a few paint spatters at the end:

Be sure to visit the Art Impressions blog on Saturday to see what Tricia & Dot have to share with you!  And if you have a Watercolor enthusiast on your Christmas list this year, click here to see the gift guide on the Ai website to help get you started.