Shady Tree

Last night I held my monthly open stamping time and as usual I spent more time talking than stamping, lol. Actually, I usually plan not to stamp so I can help them with their stuff. I love just hanging out with these people, they have become like family to me! Lynn brought a new stamp with her, from CHF's Shady Tree line, so of course I had to stamp it several times to use later. It turned into a mini lesson on watercoloring as I shared some of my tips using SU's ink. I am by no means an expert but I think people are more intimidated by watercoloring than they should be.

My biggest tip is to use a good watercolor paper, it makes a huge difference in the final outcome. A good paper allows you to move color and won't pill up on you. We laid down a soft layer of bashful blue ink onto the flower, followed by a watered down not quite navy and finished with some lovely lilac. Experiment with colors. For the leaves I put down a layer of certainly celery and then added old olive for depth. The glow around the flower is so saffron and the flower center is summer sun. In all I probably spent 5 minutes on the whole thing. For an image like this it is okay not to color in everything, leave some areas white and it is also okay to go outside the lines a bit. Watercoloring is a pretty forgiving method. That is probably why I like it so much, I like room for error, er, artistic expression!
This morning I put together a card to go with the image. Nothing fancy. Almost amethyst was a good match even though it wasn't one of the colors I used on the flower.

Experiment, it's only paper!