The Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge #14

What:

Day fourteen of the second Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge. More watercolour smooshing to go with the oh so pretty colour layering hibiscus stamps.

How:

A bit of practice making sure I knew which way up the stamp layers should go, and a few tests to make sure the different colours would work for each layer and I was ready to stamp a bunch of flowers and leaves. In the end I made enough for two cards and then sat down and fussy cut them all out — I may well pick up the dies for these.

I used Distress ink with water and a sheet of acetate to “smoosh” some colour on the background. I’ve used this technique
recently, but this time I dried each colour before adding the next as they were all quite pale and I didn’t want them to blur into one.

Then I figured out where I wanted the flowers to go and drew a (deliberately wobbly) frame by hand and added a line of gold stitching through it. I glued the leaves direct to the background, used thin foam tape to attach the orange flowers, and thicker foam tape for the pink one. Finally I stamped and die-cut the banner sentiment.

Well, I say finally, but I really wasn’t happy with the frame and I ended up going back to it and colouring it in with a matching Copic, which tones down the contrast of the gold and does look a lot better.

Lessons Learned:

The Crafter’s Companion watercolour card is no use for watercolour. Straight out of the pack it seems to have scratches on the surface which, while invisible to the eye, soak up watercolour and leave lines in the colour. I could just about ignore it for this background because it’s abstract and splotchy, but I shan’t be using it again.

Gel pen stitching and dots don’t always improve a card.

Supplies:

• stamps:
  Hero Arts – colour layering hibiscus
  Avery Elle – build a banner
  Clearly Besotted – sentimental type
• dies:
  Avery Elle – build a banner
• inks:
  Versafine – onyx black
• Distress inks:
  background – tea dye, old paper, antique linen
• Avery Elle pigment inks:
  pink flower – orchid, magenta, cherry, vino
  orange flower – daisy, mustard seed, conch shell, truffle
  leaves – celery, jungle
• pens:
  Uni-ball – Signo UM-153 – gold
  Sakura – pigma brush – sepia
• embellishments:
  Wink of Stella – clear
• paper and card:
  Crafter’s Companion – watercolour card
  Hunkydory – Ink Me! stamping card