Hi there! This is going to be a busy week on the blog… Today, I wanted to take a minute to discuss Kathy Racoosin’s The Daily Marker Coloring Contest that is happening this month. I’m a little late, but Kathy’s Coloring Challenges are some of my favorite months… ever since I started crafting more as a “job” than as a stress reliever (which I’m lucky to say that it’s still a definite stress reliever!), I find it difficult to make time to just sit at my desk and play with all of the goodies I’ve got in my stash. Kathy’s month-long coloring challenges encourage me to make the time to just enjoy coloring, even if it’s just for a few minutes, and I always do my absolute best to participate every day. So when she announced her Coloring Contest, I knew I had to try to get a few things done to enter. I entered a few colored pencil pieces, a Copic piece, and was just missing a watercolored piece. So I pulled out my Daniel Smith watercolors and got to work.
For this project, I wanted to use one of my all-time favorite sets from Ellen Hutson: Mondo Peonies. I have a mild enthusiasm (read full blown obsession) with all things floral, particularly peonies. For some reason, they just call to my artistic sensibilities. And the Mondo Peonies set from Ellen Hutson is truly stunning, featuring peonies of all shapes and sizes and angles, which definitely makes it one of the more unique peony sets. I particularly love the largest bloom in the set, the one that is fully open and staring at you head on. Gorgeous.
No-line coloring is my favorite way to use my stamps. It gives the illusion that I can draw, which makes my artist-wannabe heart so very happy. (I cant draw to save my life!) I stamped the gorgeous blooms using Ink On 3 Fadeout Ink onto some Canson L’Aquarelle Heritage paper, cold pressed, then die cut them using the coordinating dies. I watercolored the peonies using Daniel Smith Quinacridone Coral, then added Alizarin Crimson and Quinacridone Violet to add shadows and dimension. I preach this in my coloring videos, but adding layers, layers, and more layers will help you achieve fantastic dimension. Begin with your base color, then add touches of darker color in the nooks and crannies of your image to create that depth, blending it out with a clean, damp paintbrush so that you don’t get harsh water lines. The trick with no-line coloring is to keep the wet sections separate. If you color two petals right next to each other, they will bleed into one another and you will lose the definition of the petal. I demonstrate this technique in this video.
I arranged all of the watercolored die cuts on a panel of Jelly Bean card stock, trying to bring out that pretty Quinacridone Violet from the shadows of the peonies. I also added a greeting from the Mondo Sakura stamp and die set. The final touch was a few gems from Pretty Pink Posh to add some sparkle.
Well, that’s all for me today! I will be entering this project in Kathy’s Coloring Contest, and I encourage you to do as well, if you haven’t already! The contest closes tomorrow night, August 30 at 11 pm EST, so get those projects linked up! Have a marvelous day!
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