Hello everyone!

This is Monica here with my very first post for LDRS Creative. For this project, I wanted to share a bit of my essence, a technique that I constantly go back to and a style that is very me. A simple no line watercolor design.

For this I stamped the Garden’s Edge Slimline flower stamp on a piece of bristol smooth cardstock using a neutral color water based ink pad and used my watercolor markers to color it. I wanted to keep it nice and soft. Though it might seem complicated, all it really takes is to add a few very light strokes with the tip of the marker to one corner of each petal or leaf and then blend it with a water brush. Because the idea is to create shadows and highlights, just as in nature, the key is to leave some of the part you’re coloring, without color at all. Like I said above, only add a bit of color on one side, and that will be your shadow, extending the colour to the rest of the petal, which will be the highlighted area. The key is always to start with a very light hand, you can always add more colour later.

After the panel was dry, I went back and added a few more strokes, only to accentuate certain parts of the flowers. For the background, again using a water based ink, I loosely added some colour in the white areas of the panel until it was all covered. Then, I freely splattered some white gauche in the entire panel and I also added a bit of shimmering powder for more interest.

When it was all very dry, I stamped the “You are absolutely Wonderful'' sentiment from the same stamp set, added a platinum embossing powder and heat set it. I trimmed this main panel to a 3 ½ X 8 ¼ , and I used foam tape to mount it on a 4 X 8 ½ light gray cardstock panel and then to the card base of the same size. Finally, I added a few iridescent embellishments for extra sparkle and dimension.

Thank you for stopping by and reading about this project. I hope you like it and that it inspires you to try this technique.

XOXO

Monica

Be who you are and be that well _St. Francis de Sales.