Full bloom farewell

So have you missed me? Sorry about the lack of posts. There's been a lot going on in the last couple of weeks & something had to give. I have some new projects to show you now though so keep checking back over the next few days though (or subscribe if you automatically want to receive you updates). Anyway, enough waffle, onto the cards...

We made these cards at last Saturday's colouring class. I couldn't decide which one I liked more, so I made enough kits so everyone could choose which one they wanted to do (btw, I think half the guests chose one & half the other!). I used the retiring set 'In Full Bloom' for both cards. It's such a pretty set with so many different images to colour, so I'm very sad it's going.For this card, I stamped the flower on watercolour paper with basic brown ink & coloured the flower with the earth elements Watercolor Wonder™ crayons (ruby red, cameo coral, really rust, summer sun, old olive & garden green) and an aquapainter. I made slots in the card with the horizontal slot punch, threaded through some spotty ruby red & caramel ribbon from the 'Rustic Retreat' Ribbon Originals pack (also retiring) & mounted it on some ruby red card with dimensionals. I attached the ribbon to some strips of barely banana & cameo coral card with gold brads & mounted the whole lot on a certainly celery base, which I had stamped all over with one of the 'In Full Bloom' leaves. The greeting is from the 'Warmest Regards' retiring hostess set.For this card, I used a cranberry crisp base, stamped with the 'Bloomin' wheel that matches 'In Full Bloom'. I used the same flower stamps as before, but I coloured the flower petals with cranberry crisp ink (also retiring) rather than crayons. I used the same colour crayons for the other elements, but just made the colour deeper to work with the deeper cardstock. It's hard to see in the pic, but I also covered the flower petals, centre & leaves with Crystal Effects® to give a glossy dimensional look to the watercolouring. I mounted the flower on creamy caramel card & attached it and some striped taffeta ribbon (also from the 'Rustic Retreat' pack) to a strip of old olive card, which I stamped with heartfelt, from the 'Heartfelt Thanks' set.

So, which one do you prefer? Leave a comment to let me know.

Tip of the day: I generally prefer to use basic brown ink for outline images instead of black, as I think it gives a much softer look. Stampin' Up!® basic brown ink is waterproof and so not prone to bleeding. On SU watercolour paper (which is really fantastic for colouring), I tend to leave it to dry for a minute before I start to colour, just to make sure it's really dry.

ps. Sorry the pic colours are a little off - not sure what was going on the day I took them.