Blanket Flowers/Simon Says Stamp Feb 2020 Card Kit

DISCLAIMER: Oh, my... took me long enough to get blogging to come naturally... well, now, I’ve just uploaded my first sped up, shaky, no sound video! Yes! (It’ll only take me another year to get this down pat.) In the process, I managed to drop my phone into my water, saturate my half painted card, flood the floor, and upend my Altenew watercolors, not once, not twice, but 3 times.... YIKES (although that is NOT what I shouted about 20 times)! And when I mean upended... I mean wet gooey pans came flying out all over the floor, paints separated from their labeled pans, and paint went flying.... needless to say... if you seeing me looking all over for a color while painting in the video, it’s because it no longer is where it should be! Anyways, I persevered and mostly finished painting in the video.

To begin all over... I decided to try to paint one of the provided pre-stamped Suzy Plantamura cards in the March 2020 Simon Says Stamp Stronger Together Card Kit. I’ve been wanting to paint Blanket flowers (Gaillardia), for awhile, for my husband. After getting into gardening many moons ago, my husband started enjoying flowers, but he always wanted the bright orange and reds, where I went for the more dusty, paler colored flowers. So, I finally gave up and planted these very vibrant, but straggly, sometimes, perennials. He LOVES them and we always need a patch of them somewhere. Have tried painting them by scratch without success or patience, and decided, although the petals are not right, I’d make these flowers do and try painting them. Since they are mostly primary colors, I decided the Altenew palette would work.

So, I began painting the first layer trying to get in all the shading needed. I used primarily a Silver Black Velvet 4 brush and sometimes a Mimic Kolinsky 6 brush. I had the lightbulb idea, as it was turning out not too bad, to try videoing my effort... hence the disclaimer above! [I’ve attached the video at the end, in case those of you who get emails of this post end up with a truncated post.] Note, nice neat Altenew set!

After paint set:

After the video, you’ll notice I got some splotches of paint here and there, plus when the card got wet, paint moved. So, I tried to create a background, but the paper is not the best quality and the paints didn’t move great, so I ended up deepening the background color and cutting out the background on the right side. I also decided to use scrap patterned papers from K&C Company and try to emulate the patterns in the paper using various stamps and a stencil.

So, I adhered the watercolor card to the paper using strong 2 sided tape... best for straightening out curled paper and then die cutting that. I backed that with a lighter paper and then added another layer for the card front. I stamped the sentiment on the light green patterned paper, adhered those, and added red enamel dots. This kit is perfect for me as my “besties” and family are across the country and my husband is currently working out of state! 

Well, let me know, do I have a directing career in my future? Should I continue trying this? Hope you got a chuckle from this! Let me know your thoughts! Thanks for stopping by... and if you aren’t subscribed... feel free to do so!

Video... action, take 500: