Hi friends! Happy Monday! If you’re anything like me you’re ECSTATIC to see that the amazing Yana Smakula is BACK as a guest on our blog after a short traveling hiatus. Read on and enjoy!! 

Hi everyone, this is Yana Smakula and welcome back for another Yippee For Yana video!

Today I’m sharing a watercolor floral card I made for my Mom using some new and old products from Simon Says Stamp.

It has been ages since I last picked up my watercolor supplies and did some water coloring. I’m always fascinated by Debby Hughes and her watercolor masterpieces so I decided I would channel my inner Debby and try to watercolor this clematis. My watercolor skills are far from being the best, but it doesn’t stop me from trying and practicing and we all know that practice makes better.

I stamped images from the Mom’s Clematis stamp set on watercolor paper, I am using Arches Cold Pressed watercolor paper, and I stamped everything in Versa Fine Onyx Black ink using my mini MISTI stamping tool. It’s handy to stamp these using some sort of stamp positioner watercolor paper is usually textured and you do need to apply a fair amount of pressure to get good impressions on this paper. I also did some masking by stamping images on masking paper, cutting them out and applying them over the original to be able to stamp additional leaves and flower buds next to the main flower.

Once my stamping was done I moved onto coloring. I went with the easiest method for me – and that’s using my Daniel Smith watercolor and a water brush. I opted to use purples for this card and used mostly Imperial Purple color from my palette. I colored one petal at a time, this is not something I typically have the patience to do, but it is the right way to do it, and also I painted in layers, coming back to each of the petals as the previous layer of color had dried.

I also used green for the leaves and this is Undersea Green, also from Daniel Smith. To add some color variation to this image I added a lot of shading using a different color, Shadow Violet, and I think that’s what made all the difference and made this image more lifelike.

My biggest takeaway from this project is patience. A good watercolor piece requires a lot of patience and layers. This is not something I have so I often struggle with having great watercolor results.

I also decided I’d do a simple watercolor wash in the background and for this, I used same Undersea Green color and simply diluted it more to have a lighter, softer green around my Clematis cluster.

Next, I took this piece back to my MISTI and stamped a sentiment for this card, it reads “Mama, you are incredible in every way”.

At this point, I reached for my colored pencils, Polychromos by Faber Castel and used them to add finishing touches. Next, I splattered some Hero Arts White Irridescent Shimmer over the image to give it more of a messy look. I love using this product for an effect like this.

I decided to add some simple stamping to the background and this is where Simon’s new Sketchy Lines background stamp came in. I created additional masks to mask the entire image cluster, positioned the stamp over my image, inked it up with Simon’s Fossil ink and stamped adding some interest to my background. The masks protected my flowers and leave and allowed the sketchy lines to be stamped on the background only.

I also decided I wanted to add more purple to this card to tie together with the flowers, so I white heat embossed a part of the sentiment on purple cardstock. To put everything together I created an A2 kraft side folding card base, used a piece of fun foam to adhere my watercolor panel over it. Finally, I foam mounted the skinny sentiment strip and embellished this card using several sequins in purple from the Birthday Cake sequin mix.

Have fun stamping!

WATCH THE VIDEO:

SUPPLIES:

Simon Says Clear Stamps MOM’S… [ SSS ] Simon Says Cling Rubber Stamp SKETCHY… [ SSS ] Arches COLD PRESSED WATERCOLOR PAD… [ SSS ] Daniel Smith IMPERIAL PURPLE 15ML… [ SSS ] Daniel Smith UNDERSEA GREEN 5ML Extra… [ SSS ] Small WATERCOLOR BRUSH Pen SWCBP100… [ SSS ] MISTI MEMORY MISTI PRECISION STAMPER… [ SSS ] MISTI CUT-ALIGN Tool 00713 [ SSS ] Crystal Ninja CRYSTAL KATANA Mixed… [ SSS ] Tsukineko VersaFine ONYX BLACK Ink… [ SSS ] Tonic DELUXE ADHESIVE Nuvo Glue 200N [ SSS ] 9 x 12 WHITE FUN FOAM 12 Pack 118711 [ SSS ] Hero Arts EMBOSS WHITE DETAIL… [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp Embossing Ink Pad… [ SSS ] Precision Heat Embossing Tool Gun… [ SSS ] EK Success POWDER TOOL Applicator… [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp Sequins BIRTHDAY… [ SSS ]

Thanks so much for stopping by and thanks to Yana for being our guest!

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