Watercolored Flower Garden

 

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Today I have a fun card featuring the Fancy Flower Garden die. This die looks great die cut in white over a white background, but today I thought I would watercolor some Distress Oxide Inks over the die cut to give it a fun colorful look. I also added some shimmer after watercoloring which softened up the colors and gives tons of shimmer and sparkle which doesn't show up in the final picture but I did snap a close up to show what it looks like in real life. I kept this card simple by adding a die cut greeting along with a preprinted sentiment and added some soft ivory pearls to the centers of the flowers. To add to the softness of the colors I mounted the watercolored die cut to an ivory card base. Let's get started!!

I will be doing all of my work today on my Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat.

To start I take the Fancy Flower Garden Die and cut out of Watercolor Cardstock, running them through my Big Shot Die Cut Machine. This is a very intricate die so I made sure to place my Metal Adaptor Plate under the bottom cutting plate before running the die through and I did run it through then back again to be sure everything cut well. I then remove the die, keeping all of the bits still intact. *I found that leaving the die cut intact makes it easier to watercolor the pieces.

Next, I take several of my Oxide ink pads and press them onto the white area of my Glass Mat, I will be using this as my palette. Taking my Water Brush filled with clean water I first brush over the flower I will be painting first to wet the cardstock. I then pick up Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide Ink and add it to the center of the flower then blend the color out. I use this color of ink to watercolor a few of the flowers with the same process.

Next, I take my Water Brush to wet another flower then add Kitch Flamingo Distress Oxide Ink and blend it out. I use this same ink color to watercolor a few of the flowers and butterfly with the same process. I now use my Water Brush to wet and add Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide Ink to some of the flowers and blend out.

The next color I add is Milled Lavender Distress Oxide Ink followed by Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide Ink and Dried Marigold Distress Oxide Ink following the same watercoloring process.

For some of the leaves I add Shabby Shutters Distress Oxide Ink using my Water Brush and blend it out. For most of the other leaves I add Bundled Sage Distress Oxide Ink following the same watercoloring process. I finish up with Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide Ink and Twisted Citron Distress Oxide Ink for the remaining buds and leaves following the same watercoloring process.

To add a little more vibrancy to the colors, now that the first layer of colors are dry I use my Water Brush to quickly add another layer of each ink color and this completes my watercoloring. To add some shimmer to my panel and soften the colors, I take a small Mister Bottle filled with clean water and a few drops of Liquid Pixie Dust, shaken well and spray over the entire panel so that it is lightly saturated. I then put the panel aside to dry.

Once the panel is dry I use my Tool N One to poke out and remove all of the pieces from the die cut. *I was having a hard time removing a few of the tiny inside pieces of the leaves and buds so I decided just to leave them intact so I wouldn't tear anything. Adding the water with shimmer to the panel really added a soft look to the watercoloring and gave it such beautiful shine!!

Next, for a little dimension I use the same die to cut out of White Cardstock, running them through my Big Shot. I then use Liquid Glue and adhere my watercolored piece onto the white die cut. It's a little difficult to see in the photo, but I did add some detail to each flower, leaf and butterfly using my White Gel Pen.

I now place a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of Ivory Cardstock into my Scor Buddy and score it at 4 1/4" creating a side folding card base. I then add small drops of Liquid Glue to the back of my watercolored panel and mount it onto the card base.

For my greeting I take the Big Friends Die Cut and cut out of Stormy Sky Cardstock two times and use the shadow die to cut out of Ivory Cardstock once, running them all through my Big Shot. I then stack and glue the die cuts together using Liquid Glue. Instead of gluing the stacked die cuts flat onto the card panel, I cut two more of the word dies out of Ivory Cardstock then stacked and glued them together and adhered them onto the "back" of my die cut greeting. Finally, I adhered the die cut greeting onto my card front using Liquid Glue. *By stacking the die cuts and adding them to the back of the greeting, it creates separation between the die cut and card front helping the greeting to stand out more.

I now choose a sentiment from the Gratitude Sentiment Strips and trim it to a thin strip using my Tim Holtz Guillotine Paper Trimmer. I then add Liquid Glue to the back and mount it under my greeting.

I use my Jewel Picker to add some Soft Ivory Pearls with Liquid Glue and this completes my card.

I hope you enjoyed today's card, I love the soft look watercoloring with Oxide inks give. This die would also look great white on a white card base, or even cut out of colored cardstock mounted on the same colored card base for a tone on tone look. Any background technique - alcohol inked, blended, ink smooshed, etc.  would all look great as well!

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Happy Stamping and God bless!!

Jeannie