Floral Butterfly and SF Picket Fence by Karen Day

 Hello Ai Watercolour fans!

I've gone all floral this week, with a butterfly concept that I've had in my head for awhile, and have finally put it on paper:

I wanted to create a butterfly totally out of Ai flowers/leaves.  I was very inspired by the new 5936 - My Hope Set and 5937 - My Trust sets from the Bible Journaling line, so I pulled them out and set to work.  I first practised on scrap paper, drawing a pencil outline of a butterfly, in order to plan out which stamps would fit inside the shape.  I also picked my colour palette, as planning out what colour each of the flowers would be was an important part.  

*One key thing to keep in mind, is that you are trying to create mirror images - in that the left and right sides of the butterfly should mirror each other.  So unless you have stamps that mirror each other, you have to choose images that will work on both sides.  If you look closely at my project, you'll see that the sides are not mirroring each other, but I made choices that were as close as possible.  I also stopped what I was doing frequently, to look at my work, making sure that I was keeping it balanced on each side.

I'm not going to go into great detail about my project, as I realize that it's pretty involved, and not for everyone.  But the process itself is an easy concept.  As per my practise piece above, you can see that I sketched out a butterfly shape, then chose the larger blooms that fit.  Then I just used the Daisy Bunch from Flower Set - 4052 in orange, and the tiny leafy sprig from 5009 - WC Mini flower Set in lime green to fill in around them all.

I created a wash of #249/565 to dab onto the background, and then I made the body using the rose trio from 5258 - Flower Set 4, and the foxglove from Flower Set - 4052 all in #565.  I knew it was meant to be when I spotted the two flower stamps from the My Hope set that were perfect for the antennae.  The colour palette that I used is: 403/565/126/346/933/993, and the finished card size is 6 1/2" x 5".

My second project is using one of the pretty Scenic Foundations stamps.  This is 5744 - SF Picket Fence:

I stamped my image onto Canson XL Watercolour Paper using Tombows 969/565, then began painting in my scene as follows:  #476 on the house and birdhouse, using a darker shade of it on the shadowed walls, and lighter where the sun hits.  #977 was painted onto the roof, and as shades on the tree.  #177 was washed as the grassy hillsides and stamped with the line of shrubbery stamp from 5372 - W Mini Foliage.  The foliage stamp from the set was used with both #177 and #126 to add a leafy canopy to the tree.

With the main sections painted, I added in the flowers and greenery using the Salvia stamp from Flower Set - 4052 in #565, the daisy bunch in #933 & #946 and the small vines from 5126 - WC Foliage Set 4 in #177 added all the greenery including the vine on the trellis.  I touched everything with a damp brush, and then added a few dots of Bleed Proof White Paint for some softer flowers.  The windows and shadows were painted in using #565, paying special attention to the picket fence, and adding some shadows to the flowers.  I die cut my image, mounted it on some tan cardstock and attached it to my card with 3D foam adhesive.  The background paper is from 5892 - Easter S2 Paper Pack.