Tropical Scene for Watercolour Weekend

Even though we don't have many palm trees in Canada... the warmer summer weather has me feeling a little more beachy, so I have a tropical scene for you today:

 This little shed from the 5121 WC Garden Shed Set looks like a beach hut to me, so I stamped it using my Tombow marker #969 Chocolate.  With #676 Royal Purple and #703 Pink Rose, I stamped the tiny dot cluster from 5009 - WC Mini Flower Set in and around the hut, to suggest tropical flowers, and added the tiny foliage stamp with #158 Dark Olive for greenery.  From the 5120 - WC Palm Tree Set, I used the two trunk images with #969 to add the trees behind the hut, then with #126 Light Olive and #158, I added in the different palm fronds.  Using my #4 paintbrush, I pulled out the brown of the trees and the shed, and only lightly touched all of the flowers and foliage to liven the colours.

 I painted the hut with #991 Light Ochre, and a bit of #969 to suggest painted wood, and added #515 Light Blue to the door and painted it to suggest the ocean in the background.  I used #N65 Cool Grey 5 and the stepping stone image from the 5018 - WC Cobblestone Set in front of the hut, and then painted a wash with #126 to indicate the grass.  I added #565 Deep Blue to my palette, then painted in the mountains, a soft sky, and added it around all of the images to indicate shadows.

I stamped the sentiment from 5136 - WC Sentiment Set 2 using Versafine Onyx Black ink, then mounted my image onto the base using pop dots.  I layered some paper flowers and a wooden button to the bottom corner of my card, along with a few loops of May Arts twine.  The paper flowers and the flowers on the image were all touched with a Wink of Stella pen, so they're quite shimmery in person!  And you can't really tell in the photo, but that background paper has tone-on-tone sunglasses all over it.  Be sure to check out the Ai blog on Saturday to see what Tricia & Dot have come up with.

Garden Shed

This sweet garden shed is from one of the recently released Art Impressions Watercolor stamp sets, and I've paired it up with the lovely flower cart to create my watercolor scene:

I've used seven stamp sets in my scene today!  I started by placing one of the sheds from 5121 - WC Garden Shed Set and the 4703 Flower Cart together on the same block, which allowed me to control exactly where they were placed to achieve the right perspective.

I coloured them both with 969 Chocolate, stamped, and softened the lines with a damp #4 paintbrush.  I used a combo of 969 and 992 Sand to paint in the roof, shingles and cart.  Using N57 Warm Grey, I coloured and stamped 2 of the stepping stone images from 5018 Cobblestone Set, and pulled out the colour to create some texture and shadows.  I used the two trailing greenery images from 5126 Foliage Set 4 coloured with 177 Dark Jade to stamp foliage falling out of the cart, and dabbed them with a damp brush to activate the ink.  Next I used the floral cluster from 4052 WC Flower Set 1 coloured in 676 Royal Purple to create the pink flowers in the cart, and after masking the shed, I stamped them on either side of it.  I coloured 565 Deep Blue onto the tiny bluebell image from Flower Set 1, stamping it three times in an upward direction to create tall stalks of blue flowers.  After softening all the flowers/foliage with a damp brush, I went in with the tiny leaf image from 5009 - WC Mini Flower Set (oops! that's an 8th stamp set!!) to fill in around the flowers where needed.  I also used it around the shed to create some bushes with the flowers.

I used both the small and large grasses from 4051 - WC Foliage Set 1 in 177 as well as 126 Light Olive to add the suggestion of grass around the shed, stones and cart.  I pulled out the colour from the grasses, and painted in and around the images to create a wash of green grass.  After masking off the shed, I coloured two of the tree images from 5010 WC Tree Set 1 in 177, varying the heights - then softened them with a damp brush.  Finally, I scribbled 565 onto my palette, and painted in the sky and the door, and then used it to add shadows to the window, stones and cart.