Reminisce & Celebrate

As a California girl, I was certainly familiar with the gorgeous yellow-orange poppy that is our state flower.  Later on, I learned that wild poppies also came in a brilliant red color and are found throughout Europe.  While a new flight attendant, I'll never forget arriving in Spain on a fine Spring day and landing on a runway bordered by fields containing millions of bright red poppies . . .

Working on this card brought back a lot of happy memories of that spectacular sight! While my coloring skills need a lot of practice, I've come up with one easy method that always gives me deep, rich color, blends perfectly, and has yet to fail me.  I first color with watercolor pencils, using two shades that I want to blend together - in this case, it was Red and Orange, and I took things one flower head at a time.  I used Red for about 2/3 of the flower, and finished at the tops with Orange.  I did no blending at this stage.

When the entire flower head was colored with the pencils, I then used Zig Real Brush watercolor markers, also in Red and Orange, to hydrate the pencil colors.  This is what intensifies the colors in a way that plain water never could.  I colored from the bottom up in Red, and then from the petal edges down in Orange.  No real blending efforts took place - it really just sort of happened on its own.  Quick and easy!

I'm really happy with the no-line blending I got, as it makes the poppy heads look really dimensional, but with no major coloring skills required.  I always love it when my results make me look more competent than I really am . . .

Cardstock:   Bazzill Raven, Strathmore Soft White

Stamps:       Hero Delicate Blossoms, Making Memories Magnetic

                       Stamps: All text

Inks:            ColorBox Black, Wink of Stella Black

Emb Powder:   Judikins Detail Black, Distress Black Soot

Dies:            DieNamics Vertical Stitched Strip, Bugs from the We-Buys

                       Cute Chrysanthemum Set

Watercolors:   Derwent Inktense Pencils Hot Red, Sienna Gold, Fern,

                          Zig Real Brush Carmine Red, Orange, Mid-Green

Doo Dads:    Studio Gesso Black, American Craft Jute Red