Meadow Wildflowers
It is not very often that I find time to watercolor with my cards, but when I do… I am unable to stop without a HUGE effort of self control! I realize that this level of effort is for the “Artfully Avid” stamper, but I wanted to share how much I just love the dies Stampin’ Up! provided in the latest catalogs! The Quiet Meadow Bundle I featured last month was hidden towards the back of the new Annual Catalog (pg. 110), but once I looked at the Meadow Dies, I got so excited as I could see potential of what the lovely wildflower silhouettes could become when watercolored. And then Stampin’ Up! added more glorious wildflower Harvest Dies in the Natures Meadow Suite, available in the 2021 Fall Mini Catalog (pg. 54)!! I could hardly wait for time to get out my Water Painters, Fluid 100 Watercolor paper and inks to dive into both!! I hope you enjoy the results as much as I did.
Whenever I get ready to watercolor, I check out photo images of that item (either pictures I have taken, or what I can find online) to get my colors and ideas. While I am not a professional artist, I stumble along in a way that pleases me and if you squint and blur your vision… it looks kinda like the real thing. hahaha… Hint: When using ink for water coloring, I take my ink pad and squeeze the pad lid into the ink pad while it is closed. The lid will have a circle of ink, so then use the lid when it is open to mix my inks.
Remember to…card
For this card, I used the following colors of Classic Stampin’ Pad ink on Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper, applied with Water Painters. The echinacea petals (pink cone flower), I used the Polished Pink ink with Magenta Madness for the subtle darker tone. The echinacea flower head was Cajun Craze with Calypso Coral, and then added little speckles of Tuxedo Black Memento ink for the shadow. The bachelor button (darker blue flower), I used a combo of Pacific Point and Gorgeous Grape ink. To get the richer colors, I don’t water down the ink. As I want lighter colors, I add more water to my ink mix. This same combo of colors was used on the little
yellow centered purple flowers (desert phlox or blue flax), but made the purple lighter. I added Daffodil Delight ink to the center for the pop of yellow. The stems of these 3 flowers was colored using Garden Green ink. The lavender stalks (or they could be grain stalks), I used mostly Highland Heather with a little Midnight Madness for the cooler blue tone and the stem was colored using Evening Evergreen. The 5th floral (unknown), I panted what I thought was the petals using Blackberry Bliss ink with Garden Green for the stem. For the foliage behind (not sure what they are), I used Soft Succulent and Evening Evergreen ink. The background paper is a piece from the gorgeous Harvest Meadow 12”x12” DSP from the Suite Collection, with a strip of the Cork 12”x12” Specialty Paper and the In-Color 6”x6” DSP Assortment in Evening Evergreen. I added this to a card base from the Evening Evergreen CS. The greeting is stamped in Evening Evergreen Ink on Basic White CS, cut out using the Harvest Die. The bow is the 3/8” Open Weave Ribbon in Evening Evergreen, and the embellishments are the Brushed Metallic Adhesive-Backed Dots from the Suite Collection. …More photos below…
Good Luck card
This good luck card used the same elements as above for the wildflowers. The daisy shadows were painted using Gray Granite ink, the lightest I could make it. The flower center was Bumblebee with Crushed Curry ink. After painting the background paper using Soft Succulent ink on Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper (3-1/2”x5”), I ran it through the new Timeworn Type 3D Embossing Folder (stunning) and layered it on a 3-1/2”x5” piece of Evening Evergreen CS. Both pieces had the edges distressed with a combination of my fingernail and the sharp edge of my
Paper Snip Scissors. Over the flowers, for a look of a frosted vase, I used one of the dies from Lovely Label. The greeting is from the Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set, stamped in Evening Evergreen ink on the Meadow die cut label. This all was layered on a 5-1/4”x4” piece of the Cork Specialty Paper over an Early Espresso card base. I added the White 1/4” Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon bow and the 2021-23 In Color Jewels in the darkest green. …More photos below…
Thank You card
For this card, I used the stamped image from the Natures Harvest Stamp Set. I used the Gray Granit ink, stamped off so that the outline was the lightest possible to achieve a hand painted card. This is again using the Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper, Water Painters and Classic Stampin’ Pad inks. For the colors, I used a combo of the Polished Pink and Magenta Madness ink for the petals, and the Calypso Coral and Cajun Craze ink for the center. I then again used the Memento Tuxedo Black ink for shadows on the center. The background, stems and leaves were painted using the Soft
Succulent ink. The background flowers were added free hand for a hint of distant flowers. I think this would be considered a “bug’s eye view”… lol. The 3-1/2”x5” Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper was run through with the Timeworn Type 3D EF, then layered over a 3-5/8”x5-1/8” piece of Polished Pink CS with the pretty 3/8” Diamond Weave Ribbon wrapped around. It is then layered over the Soft Succulent CS card base. The greeting was stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black ink, die cut using the Harvest die, and layered on the Cork Specialty Paper, cut with the Lovely Labels Pick-A-Punch, and the embellishments are the Brushed Metallic Adhesive-Backed Dots from the Suite Collection. …More photos below…
