Hollyhock Heaven Indeed!
Posted: May 11, 2023 Filed under: hollyhock heaven, how sweet, Penny Black | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 9 Comments
This is the stamp I didn’t know I’d been waiting for until I saw it in the new Penny Black release! Hollyhocks are such beautiful flowers. I don’t have any in my garden so obviously I need some on my cards!
As usual I worked in the stamp positioner with hot pressed watercolour paper. I first inked the centres of the open flowers with a dark red zig clean color brush marker, spritzed with water and stamped. Next I inked the stems and leaves at the top of the image with a green zig marker and stamped. I used saltwater taffy distress ink to ink all the flowers wiping ink off where I could see there were leaves. This is a bit of a tricky step but a bit of green in the wrong place can usually be diluted and dabbed off with paper towel. I blended all the petals with a paintbrush pulling the dark red ink into the paler pink. When stamping the lower leaves with mowed lawn distress ink the fence ended up green so I went over that with some hickory smoke ink and a paintbrush. When I was sure the flower petals were dry I added yellow to the centres just like my reference photo. To finish I splattered some green and taffy ink, added a little greeting from the PB ‘how sweet!’ set and tied some twine to fit in with the little fence.
Isn’t this stamp a stunner? I can’t wait to try other colours and pair it with other florals.
Now back to my gel printing class; it’s not going to publish itself!
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Heather Telford 
Beautiful! I used to have hollyhocks years ago.
I had them in my garden here years ago too; not sure how I lost them!
I love seeing you use this technique since it’s difficult for me. This is so well done in gorgeous colors and your usual beautiful ink blending. The stamp is gorgeous mainly due to your fabulous artwork.
I love this stamp, especially with your artistic talent coloring it. So beautiful!
What a sweet card….soooo well done Heather!!!
Paper Hugs,
Jan
WOW! Your hollyhocks are GORGEOUS! I love the colours … so fresh and bright. Need to buy this stamp! 🙂 xx
Hollyhocks are biennial, which means they bloom every other year. Colors in my yard vary with each blooming. I have tried harvesting seeds and I finally just decided to let Mother Nature handled where and when I enjoy them.
Your card is perfectly executed, Heather! I read how you created these beautiful hollyhocks and I greatly admire your attention to exquisite detail and the patience to make it happen. One day I hope to try your technique for the watercolor painting of stamps. It truly is art!
Thank you Nise, I would like to plant some hollyhocks and I think now is the time to do it as we’ve probably had our last frost. Thank you for your kind words about the technique. It is a favourite of mine and does take a bit of patience but I think it is a bit more relaxed than the traditional no-line watercolour.
I just adore hollyhocks, they are so tall and stately, and these are such a beautiful colour and the technique of adding the colour bit by bit using the different pretty colours to build up the finished look, and using a paintbrush to blend, gives a wonderful watercolour look to the finished piece…just gorgeous Heather! x