Peony Pink

The new ‘Bliss’ release from Penny Black includes some of the beautiful brushstroke stamps I love using. They are pretty in a single colour but are perfect for creating ‘painterly’ images with several colours. To create this card I used distress stains and a stamp positioning tool to add colours one at a time.

I inked flowers and bud on the Peony stamp with Victorian velvet distress stain then stamped on hot-pressed watercolor paper. Next I inked the centres of the flowers with aged mahogany distress stain and stamped. I did the leaves in forest moss distress stain next and finally the branches and twigs in vintage photo distress stain.

Using a small round watercolor brush I blended from centre of the flowers outward with water to create softly blended petals then continued to blend all stamping with a damp brush until the flower appeared more painted than stamped. Occasionally I dabbed really wet areas with a paper towel.When I was happy with my flowers I let the image dry then splattered aged mahogany distress stain lightly around.

To complete the card I added a sentiment from Happy wishes set in versafine vintage sepia ink and attached the panel to a card base.

Supplies

Stamps: Peony, Happy Wishes (PB)
Inks: Victorian velvet, aged mahogany, vintage photo, forest moss distress stains, aged mahogany, vintage photo distress marker (Ranger), versafine vintage sepia (Tsukineko)
Paper: Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper