With love and caring

A very dear friend has had a terrible time of it the last few months with the passing of several friends and family. And, another one three days before they left on holiday. In thinking what to make for her, I opted for a love and caring card instead of a sympathy card, which I think she would like very much.

It has been a very long time since I have used this Poppy by Penny Black, and I think it is the perfect image for this card. 

The stamp has the lines for the curves of the flowers, but I opted to leave those out and instead did no-line water colouring for the flower. For the stems, I inked the stamp lightly using my paints and stamped on my paper. For the flower I inked the bottom and top of the flower in a very pale pink, then painted. 

I had poppies in my garden when I lived out west. They were on the north side of my house in behind other bushes ... you know, one of those flowers that suddenly appeared one day. What I found so intriguing about them was they looked like satin and were a red colour with not a bit of variation in them. I decided that is how I wanted to paint my flower. 

I started by masking off with frisket the tiny dots and both sides of the middle petal for interest, using a clay shaper, which has a silicone tip so the frisket does not stick to it nor damage it like it does paint brushes. I then painted in layers using Daniel Smith water colours in pyrrol scarlet and cadmium red medium hue. For the stems I used a watered down hooker's green to get that light shade, then shadowed with stronger colour. I wanted the rest of the card to remain very clean, so I just added the sentiment stamped in jet black, then rubbed off the frisket using my glue eraser. For interest I die cut the panel using my in and out stitched die and attached it to my black card base using fun foam. I then added a few clear jewel drops.

Thank you for dropping by.