Lilies in a Teacup and a Birdbath by Karen Day

 Hello Ai Watercolour fans!

I love the sweet new 6024 Tea Time Set, and wanted to fill the largest teacup with some flowers...

I stamped the cup in N57, leaving the top rim and the motif uncoloured.  I searched through my stash for some flowers to fill the top, and realized that the bouquet from the recently released 6029 Easter Lilies Set fit perfectly!  So I coloured up just the blooms and foliage in N57, and since it is a clear stamp, I was able to position them where I wanted in the cup.

To keep the lilies white, I just added some shading down the center of each petal using #533/565, and outlined the stamens with my orange Twintone pen.  For the leaves, I did layers of #126/177, and added a touch of green to the bottom of the unopened buds.  I mixed #249/565 to create my aqua shade that I painted onto the cup and saucer, created a grey/green shade for the table, and added #533 to the background.  Thinking of my Grandma's teacups... I used my gold gel pen to add a gold rim to the saucer, and coloured in the leaves... then also added touches of gold the stamens in the flower centers.

I die cut my image with a stitched oval die, and put a metallic gold mat under it.  A slightly larger oval was cut out of patterned paper from the 6033 - Inspirational Easter PP, and was attached to my card base with 1/16" foam adhesive - you can see just a hint of the blue card base below it.  The image is raised on a thicker foam adhesive so there is a lot of fun dimension on the card!  To echo the gold touches, the sentiment from the Tea Time Set was gold embossed at the bottom.

My second card features Kim's 5980 - Song Birds and Feeders set.  

I stamped the birdbath in #N57, then using my stamp positioner, added the branch and birds.   The mountains and hillsides were sketched in with a pencil.  I mixed shades of #565/177 to create the blue green colours of the mountains and hills, then added a wash of #177/126 to the foreground.  #565 was painted in as the water and shading contours on the birdbath. I brushed in #476 as the sky, being sure to leave some fluffy white areas to suggest clouds.

I made my birds into robins, as they're a sure sign of spring in my neck of the woods!  I added layers of #947 to their bellies, and shades of N45 to their head, back and feathers.  My black Twintone marker was used to dot their eyes.  There is a small bit of greenery included in the stamp set, so I used it along with #177 to stamp in the foliage, which I touched with a damp brush.  Since I wanted it to be a flowering spring tree, I used white paint to create blossoms in the tree, and dotted their centers with the fine point of my #933 marker.  I used the long grasses from 5126 - WC Foliage Set 4 in #565/177 to stamp some grass around the base of the birdbath, and added a few white paint flowers there as well.

After die cutting my scene with an oval die, I adhered it with 3D foam adhesive over a dark grey mat, and attached it all to my background made with two papers from the 5835 - Mini PP.  I finished off my card with some grey enamel dots.  The finished card size is 4 3/4" x 6".