Hibiscus Birthday | Altenew

I’ve been all about sharing coffee cards lately, but now that the coffee hop is over I’m going back to other things instead. This evening (a bit later than planned – thanks for your patience!) I’m sharing a bright birthday card that I painted.

I started by stamping a flower from Altenew’s Wild Hibiscus onto watercolour paper with Simon Says Stamp’s Barely Beige ink. I then used my Gansai Tambi watercolour paints to paint the flower. I am not very confident watercolouring (even though my most popular card I’ve blogged is a watercoloured design!) and don’t do it a lot, but I do enjoy it from time to time. I used two yellows and an orange, and started by adding a very light layer of colour one petal at a time. Once the first layer was dry, I added a second layer to deepen the colour. I also used a green to paint the stem. I let the flower dry again and then went in to enhance the colour further with some watercolour pencils, before finally fussy cutting the flower out.

I wanted to create an ink smooshed background for my flower, so I took another piece of watercolour paper and added smooshed layers of blue Distress Oxides. I starte with my lightest, which was Tumbled Glass, then moved onto Mermaid Lagoon, and finished with a tiny amount of Stormy Sky. The water I used at this stage was mixed with Perfect Pearls, which adds a touch of shimmer to the background.

I used the lower heat setting of my WOW Dual-Speed Heat Tool to dry the background, then die cut it with the second largest of the Kat Scrappiness Never Ending Rectangle Dies. Die cutting it also had the benefit of helping to flatten out the warping. I also helped it to lay flat by using a very wide double-sided tape to cover the whole back of the panel, ensuring that every part would stick down to the card base.

I chose a blue card base but felt that I wanted to pull the yellow in a bit more so I used Love From Lizi Sunshine Yellow Pinstripe Peel-Offs to edge the panel. I then placed the card base into my MISTI and stamped the birthday sentiment from Altenew’s Build-A-Flower: Sakura Blossom stamp set, using Versafine Onyx Black ink.

As a final touch I added three clusters of Nuvo Drops, using  Limoncello and Sea Breeze.

The colour palette on this card is so bright and happy, and it did turn out pretty much how I was envisioning when I started creating. That said, I do feel like I need more practice with watercolouring, and actually with colouring flowers in general. Still, I do like this card even if I feel like I could improve.

Love,

Lady Joyful

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Challenges included:

AAA Cards – Birthday

Altenew Inspiration Challenge – Photo Inspiration

Digi Choosday – Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge – Anything Watercolour Goes

Stamping Sensations – Say It With Flowers

Uniko Challenge – Anything Goes and Optional: Bright & Happy

Watercooler Wednesday Challenge – All About Occasions