Flowers Whisper What Words Cannot Say............

Good morning!

I've created this card using watercolour pencils - had a whole lot of fun so lets see how I got there....

Spring is in the air don't you think?!!!

Instead of taking photo's along the way I've taken one of how I get there with watercolour pencils - and I'll explain!

I first marked out my square which in this case is 7 x 7 inches in pencil. I am working on a watercolour block pad (the pages are sealed to help with minimal movement of the paper).

Now, to get that wonderful light background I have actually used three colours of Inktense watercolour pencils and have shaved off some of the pencil tips using a craft knife.  You don't need that much of the pencil tip shavings to create your lovely "loose" background.  So, once you've got your shavings on there just spritz gently with water and see it move!

I stamped my image (Sheena Douglass Magnolia stamp) first of course and have then gone in with the pencils with the three colours from the challenge swatch.  The joy of having such a lovely watercolour pad and the large page size is that you can always use the rest of the page as your testing palette.  Here you can see how I experimented with the pencils and tried them out first before putting them on the actual design.

The sentiment (which I think was a Justrite one) has been stamped using Spectrum Aqua Markers direct to the stamp, spritzed gently and then stamped - it gives you this lovely watercolour effect to the sentiment.

I have added some flowers that also came in the same Sheena Douglass Magnolia stamp set - again, you can see how I've tested those on the page before going direct to the artwork.

When I was happy with the water colouring, I added Glossy Accents to the petals of the flowers.

You can see the Glossy Accents a bit closer here.

Matted and layered on to two mats which have been coloured with Spectrum Aqua Markers in matching colours. Oh, and I doodled some of my own designs on there too!!!!

I thought this shouted Spring or even Easter?

Hope you like this one and particularly how I work with watercolours and test before adding to the final result.

Thanks for stopping by today,

Leanne xx

I would like to enter this in to the following challenges:-

Rubber Dance March Colour Challenge:-

http://rubberdance.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/rubber-dance-stamps-colour-challenge.html

Artistic Stamper - Springtime:-

http://theartisticstampercreativeteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/marchs-creative-challenge-springtime.html

The Flower Challenge - Anything Goes:-

http://theflowerchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/the-flower-challenge-6-anything-goes.html

Stamplorations - Sketch and Stamp - Stamps and Spring:-

http://stamplorations.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/march-challenge.html

Five Christmas Cards for January!!!!!!!

Good morning!

Look at me!!! I'm off to a wonderful start with my new years resolution of 5 Christmas cards a month for 2017!!!!

As promised, I will share on one blog each month my 5 Christmas cards for each month and here we are with January's makes.

I haven't got a step by step on these but I have taken individual photo's of each one for you so that you get a closer look at each of them.

Each card being slightly different I shall try to explain the basics to these.  

I have really enjoyed playing with lace through 2016 so I thought it would be super to start my Christmas card adventure using some lace - not very Christmassy? - that depends on how you use it! I believe that most things can become Christmassy if you put your mind to it!

These cards started with a piece of lace being placed over my Sheena Stamping card and sponging through some distress ink.  I didn't stick the lace down, if you are careful you can just hold it and dab gently for a lovely loose effect.  I then used a Woodware poinsettia stamp, some of these are stamped with Archival watering can and others have been embossed with clear embossing powder over it (where I was going to use water colour within the image). I have added some foliage from Clarity Stamp too.

The sentiment is from Clarity Stamp.

OK, let me see if I can tell you one by one how I've coloured the Poinsettias:-

Water coloured with Inktense pencils and die cut into and layered on a fibre mat. Finished with sparkle pens.

Intense pencils here but using them as colouring pencils without water this time and matted on to plain card stock, finished with sparkle pens.

Inktense water colour pencils here and die cut into with bright red mat.  Finished with sparkle pens.

Inktense water colour pencils, bright red mat, no die cutting this time and finished with sparkle pens.

Oh yes, my favourite! Good old Polychromo pencils, look at the intensity of colour that builds up here.  Matted on to a fibre mat and finished with sparkle pens.

I know that the sparkle pens can't be seen on the photo's but look - a super close up shot - it's there..... honest!!!!!

So, there you go, month 1 - mission complete!

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx