Simple Beauty by Gennette Houghton

 

Hello, and Welcome to Watercolor Weekend.  Art Impressions released the most beautiful sets for Bible Journaling and they are great elements for cards as well.  I am so excited to work with these sets some more!

Isn’t this guy the cutest thing ever!!!!  I fell in love with him the very first time I saw him!  I used 6216 Mercy Set, I started by stamping in Distress Ink Pumice Stone after stamping off once and placed it on my watercolor paper.  I created a mask for the bird and leaf and used liquid masking fluid to cover the water drops.  I then used the 2^nd from smallest 5065 Oval Double Stitched Dies to trace a guide around the image, and then will use it to cut my project out.  I took a pencil and ruler to put in a guide for the horizon line, and used a black micron on the bird’s eye.  055, 025, and N15 was used on the main part of the body.  For the beak and the little tiniest of toes I used 946.  The small section of white under the wing I shaded with 565.  I added some highlights on the head with some Bleed Proof White.  I started with 126 on the leaf and then shaded with 177, leaving the area under the water light.  I then added in some 565 and 025 in the water and added some highlights with Bleed Proof White as well.  Using the horizon line I colored the ground with 969, darkening under the leaf for a shadow.  526 was used for the sky before I put the foliage and flowers in.  After masking the image I used 5826 WC Large Tree Set 2 for the grass in 177 and two small spots at the base with 969, stamping multiple times on both sides.  I then took the leafy branch from 5126 WC Foliage Set 4 and used 126 and then drawing a line up both branches with 177.  I then stamped in the flowers from the set in 177 and 526, darkening the centers of the flowers with more 526 after pulling the color out.  Tiny dots were also added with Bleed Proof White.  I softened all of the foliage with a damp brush finishing off my image.  I decided to leave the pencil guide in for the oval and shaded around it with 535.  I then used the die to cut out my image, and used 5727 Nested Oval Dies, 8^th from the largest to cut out a mat.  6205 Floral Shop Paper Pack was used to mat my card base.  I used an embossing folder on some solid cardstock for the band, and popped my image up with foam tape. 

For my 2^nd card I used 6220 Sing to the Lord, such a beautiful set, and Bonnie out did herself this time!!  I started by cutting my watercolor paper down to 4 ¼ by 5 ½ since I plan on matting my card base with it.  I then used my stamping platform because I plan on extending the line of wildflowers.  I used Distress Ink Pumice Stone and stamped off once each time.  I lined up the stamp to the left edge first, and then lined the stamp back up on the right to go completely across the paper.  I used 126 and 177 for most of the stems and leaves, on a few I used 192 and 249.  For the purple sprigs I used 676, the daisies I used N60 and N52 to shade the petals.  The centers I used 055, 025, and 026, and then added a bit of Bleed Proof White on the petals to brighten them a bit.  For the 2 little flowers I used 905, and the yellow flowers I used the same combinations as I did for the centers of the daisies.  For the Coneflowers I started with 685, it was more purple than I wanted so I went over it with a little 725.  For the centers I used 947 and shaded with 969, I also added a couple of dots of BPW.  I added in some 526 in the background.  I decided to take a ruler and pencil to create an edge at the bottom of the flowers and extended any of the foliage to meet up with the line that I needed too.  I then “shaded” the line with 725 to match the paper I chose from 5892 Easter S2 Paper Pack.  I used the 5972 BJ Decorative Margin Die to create a border in a matching solid cardstock and topped it with the paper I had picked, finishing off my card.  I was going to add the included sentiment but I decided not to.  I never have been big on putting sentiments on the front of a card, it leaves my options open for what the card can be used for.  Thank you so much for joining me today, and I hope you enjoyed my cards.  Until next time!  Create….Share….Inspire!