September makes me think of sunflowers, and today they inspired my creativity. I began by embossing Simon Says Stamp’s Daisy Bouquet set onto watercolor paper. I embossed two entire sets of the flower using Ranger black embossing powder.
Next, in preparation for watercoloring, I used painters tape to adhere my panels to a board.
I then watercolored the flowers using Jane Davenport’s mini palettes in Neutral and Bright. After first wetting the area to painted with water, I followed with a separate brush loaded with Mango watercolor. Working one flower at a time, I repeated the above process until all flowers were painted.
After drying, I lightly spritzed one flower at a time then added Vitamin C watercolor around the centers of the flowers. The excess water on each flower allowed the watercolor to move toward the end of each petal. I let the watercolor do what it wanted here, just adding a bit of water when the colors didn’t move well enough on their own.
To finish the greenery, I mixed Jimmy and a small bit of Ink watercolors for a deeper green. After wetting each area to be painted I watercolored each stem individually. A bit of Cocoa at the center finished each flower off.
After completely drying, I die cut all flowers and stems.
Card 1
For the first card, I stamped a sentiment from the same sunflower set using Gina K Kraft ink onto an A2 card base, cut from Gina K Kraft cardstock. I adhered a few flowers at the bottom corner (some using Gina K Connect glue, others using Mini Foam Squares) and a flower and stem combo along the left side.
Next, I trimmed the overhanging flower bits then mixed a bit of Raven watercolor which I speckled across the card. I followed this with a bit of Cocoa watercolor as well. There isn’t much difference in the speckle colors, but it does add some variation.
With this, the first card was complete.
Card 2
For the second card, I also started with an A2 card base cut from Kraft cardstock. I stamped a sunflower background, Simon Says Stamp Gerbera Daisy Background, using Kraft ink. The tone on tone of this background was exactly what I was after.
I stamped my sentiment using Hero Arts INTENSE Black ink, then adhered a sunflower bouquet to the center of the card using Gina K Connect glue.
This finished off the second card.
Card 3
For the third card, I still utilized Kraft cardstock, but only as a card panel framed by an A2 card base cut from Neenah Classic Crest 120lb cardstock. I stamped a sentiment using Delicata Pigment Ink in Celestial Copper.
After adhering various flowers and stems to the card, I accented using Nuvo Rose Gold sequins. With that, the third card was done.
The Kraft cardstock pairs beautifully with the yellow and orange of the sunflowers, and today’s cards showcase how differently the same elements can be utilized differently in application.
This is how I often create, finishing a set of cards that all pair together, yet are instinctually different. How do you create? A set of fairly identical cards? One at a time? Or a set of similar, yet differently executed cards? Let me know in the comments below!
