Simple Pastel Flowers

I started working on this card this morning before I left for work. That was a mistake, because I was enjoying the colouring so much that I didn’t want to stop! (And, as it turned out, the colouring didn’t go quite as well when I returned to it.) I made this card primarily as a response to Less Is More‘s one layer challenge to include a favourite flower. I decided to combine it with CAS on Sunday‘s pastel colour challenge and  Addicted to Stamps and More‘s anything goes challenge.

Now I don’t actually have a favourite flower, so I slightly reinterpreted the challenge to be my favourite flower stamp. Of course then I couldn’t choose, so I went for my two favourites! I decided I would have a go at no line colouring again. I worked out my positioning and stamped the flowers using my MISTI. I used a pale pink pigment ink the heads of the flowers, and a light green for the stems and leaf.

I then got started on the colouring. I used my watercolour pencils, though as the ink isn’t waterproof I wasn’t able to activate and blend them out. I started with the taller flower first and, using a previous card I’d made as a guide for the shading, coloured it using three different shades of pink. (Actually the darkest is a kind of purple-pink). The flowers, incidentally, are from Altenew’s Wild Hibiscus.

I’d only got that first flower head finished when I had to leave for work. I started on the other flower as soon as I got home and somehow, despite using the same colours, managed to make it a lot darker. Whoops… I preferred the lighter look of the first flower, but darkened it up slightly to help them match. I then went in and coloured the green portions of the flowers.

Next I stamped my sentiment, which is one I got from Hobbycraft back when I was in England. I really like the font of it. I used MFT Black Licorice ink to stamp it.

I decided to go back in and add a bit of shadow around the flowers to help them pop of the page. I did that with the black and grey from my watercolour pencils. And then the card was finished.

I’m reasonably happy with how this card turned out. I still think the flower on the left ended up too dark though. I wish I’d paid more attention to what I was doing and used a lighter hand. Even so, I think the colouring worked nicely.

Love,

Lady Joyful