Pink & green, THE color combination of the early eighties. I can remember vividly the pink & green ribbon hair ties, patterned shirts, corduroy pants and sneakers I wore in 6th grade – the year of pink & green. The pink is back and it’s called Magenta Madness! It’s bright, it’s powerful and it’s fun!!! For Club this month, we made these bright & happy watercolor washed sunflowers. I took pictures of the process to show you how so you can duplicate them. Feel free to change the colors, but I really think you should re-live the pink & green era.
Before I show you my process, I wanted to show you the inspiration for this card I found on Pinterest.
You can see all the similarities from the inspiration piece. I changed the colors slightly, the placement of the sentiment, changed the center glimmer paper to gold foil and omitted the ribbon. This is the reason we post pictures of our cards & projects on social media, for you to copy exactly, copy some or just be inspired by some element.
How I made my Bright & Happy Watercolor Washed Sunflowers
First I put some Melon Mambo re-inker on a clear block along with a little water. I took my Aqua Painter (now they sell Water Painters in a set of 3) and did a watercolor wash (broad brushstrokes) on a piece of Shimmery White card stock. Shimmery White and Watercolor paper work very well when adding water to the paper. Regular card stock, or even thick card stock can pill and get distorted. Let dry.
Next, I cut out the solid (background) shape of the sunflower with the Sunflowers dies.
I cut out a partial sunflower (I only wanted the middle piece) out of Shimmery White card stock and cut the extra pieces off with Paper Snips. Then, I colored the center piece with Crushed Curry ink (I didn’t have my new Bumblebee ink yet). Let dry.
I also did a background watercolor wash on a piece of Shimmery White card stock in Granny Apple Green. There are two types of centers here, both embossed with the Hammered Metal 3D Embossing folder – one colored with Melon Mambo Ink and one embossed in Gold Foil paper (shown below). The top sunflower layer is cut out of Magenta Madness and leaves in Just Jade, Granny Apple Green and Shaded Spruce. All cut with the Sunflowers dies.
Put it all together and you get these Bright & Happy Watercolor Washed Sunflowers. I stamped “thanks a bunch” in Shaded Spruce ink with the coordinating Celebrate Sunflowers stamp set. Purchase the stamp set & dies together to save 10%, 154065, $51.25. Buy this bundle in July and receive a $5 Bonus Days Coupon to use during the month of August.
I love playing and creating with this Celebrate Sunflowers bundle. To see more examples I have made, please visit these two posts – https://mailsomethingpretty.com/creating-a-two-color-sunflower-with-a-stamparatus/ and https://mailsomethingpretty.com/instant-sunflowers-with-the-new-celebrate-sunflowers-stamps-dies/.
