February Release Blog Hop with Joy Clair Designs

 

Hello everyone!  I am so excited to be a part of the February Release

Blog Hop and Giveaway at Joy Clair Designs!

You can hop along with us for your chance to win a $25 gift card to Joy Clair Designs store, valid for Digital and Clear Stamps. The hop will end on Feb. 3rd @ 11:59 PM EST. Winners will be announced on the Joy Clair Designs Blog between February 4th - 9th . The release is live now, so happy shopping!

I chose the "Forever Friends" set to create my first cards.  I changed my mind a lot throughout

the process of making these.  I was going to make one slimline card and it did not

come together the way I had imagined...on to Plan B!

I printed out my design onto hot press watercolor paper twice.  I changed the color

of the flower sprays to gray and the sentiment to a very deep violet.  I knew the color

palette I wanted to use so changing the color of the printing was helpful.

My plan for the slimline was to paint these images, cut them out, flip them

so one would cover the top half and one would cover the bottom half with the

sentiment in-between.  I wanted to watercolor these images and I used

the September 2019 Love From Lizi card kit as my palette inspiration.  It's

obviously a fall palette but I was ready for some rich color!  Enough already

with the winter and the snow!!

I painted these together - as opposed to painting one to completion and then going

on to the next one.  I painted my largest flower first.  This is the main focal point of

the spray.

I also painted the violet buds and then moved onto the gold flowers.  I painted

in layers not using a lot of water.

I used the same darker colors for shading on both flowers.

I tried to balance out my colors.  There were 7 flowers/buds.  I painted 3

in the plum color and 4 in the gold. 

I used green and plum on the leaves near of the plum flower.

I made one stem of leaves the gold color and one set in the plum color.

Watercolor Palette:

Aussie Red Gold

Bright Violet

Scarlet Lake

Olive Green

Stil de Grain

Yellow Ochre

Quinacridone Magenta

I added a few colors here and there to deepen and brighten.  And then I fussy

cut my images - including the sentiment.

I cut a piece of medium colored plum card stock to put on my cream colored

slimline base.  This is where things went in a different direction!  Although

I liked how it looked, sort of, when I put the pieces against the ivory color

it was beautiful!  And I felt that the 2 images were too busy for the slimline

card - so I made 2 cards.  On top of the ivory bases - one slimline base and

the other an A2 size top folding made from Neenah 80lb Classic Crest Cream

card stock, I cut a panel for both cards 1/8" smaller out of plum card stock.

This is a Hero Arts card stock called Plum...so pretty!  I also printed and cut

another sentiment for the second card.  I cut 2 panels of the cream card

stock - one 3" x 8" and the other 4" x 5 1/4".  I embossed these panels to give

a bit of texture and interest to the background.

I adhered my flowers and sentiment with liquid glue to the cards.  As an

embellishment I used clear iridescent sequins and gems.

I hope you'll hop along with us as we introduce the February Release!  I am

so loving this Forever Friends set!  Please comment for your chance to win!

Stay tuned for Day 2!

Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting!  I hope my project has 

inspired you to create something beautiful!

Betsy