Here we are on the final day of the CLASSroom's Twelve Days of Christmas! I received a treat in the mail a couple of days ago, and I'm happy to share pictures with you today: a couple of the new Cornish Heritage Farms releases, as well as some new Memory Box Sugardrop papers.
When I first saw this lovely little line Poppy Pair stamp, I knew that I needed to pull out my watercolor paper to play. (The watercolor paper that I used here is some Arturo paper that Ellen is planning to have available in the store in the near future.) I took color inspiration from the Memory Box Sugardrop papers, choosing to go with a delicate pink poppy rather than a bright red one this time. I stamped the poppies and a sentiment from Mona Lisa's Scripture Essentials I set in Black Brilliance ink and briefly heat set the ink with my heat tool before starting to watercolor. (I'm happily assuming that "Scripture Essentials I" implies a Scripture Essentials II in the future!)
I started with the greens in the stems and leaves, using watercolor crayons (some Lyra and some Stampin' Up), but you can use any watercolor medium that you have available. I especially like this small waterbrush for the fine lines, though I used a larger one later to float in the background yellow. Painting a contour line drawing like this stamped image is so simple since you can use the lines as a shading guide.
Next I added some pinks as well as a bit of cool gray shadow on the bottom poppy. (You can click on any image to see it larger, if you wish.)
Finally, I added a warm yellow glow around the flowers. Even though the yellow was not in my background paper choices, I knew that it would really set off the flowers and wouldn't clash with the paper. The secret to getting a wash that fades into the paper rather than having a hard line is to keep your outer edge wet at all times. I usually lay down a layer of plain water around my image, in manageable sections, and then pick up pigment on my brush and work toward the wet outer area. When the pigment hits the wet patch, it diffuses nicely and gives you a soft edge.
To finish my card, I had one obstacle to overcome: the watercolored image and verse were large enough that I would have almost no paper showing with a standard A-2 sized card, especially if I matted the image. So I did two things: (1) I made the card a little larger than standard size at 4-1/2" a 6", and (2) I chose to machine stitch around my piece to make a visual mat on the inside, while still retaining the pretty, natural deckle edges that the watercolor paper has. I also added some Peony Dew Dropsand a little corner piece made from more of the Memory Box Sugardrop paper.
Be sure to see the companion post to this one and sign up for that fabulous giveaway, okay? Thanks for visiting. Edited to Add: I just found out that the new Shady Tree stamps (the Cornish Heritage Farms line that the poppy is in) are not available until January 15. I'm sorry to have raised your hopes for finding these beauties this early! Be sure to check back though. Than you!
