Inlaid Rose and a Bonus Card

Happy Friday, y'all!  How's it going?  I'm eating breakfast with Ryan on the floor next to me...he's laying on a blanket and kicking his feet like crazy.  I swear this kid is gonna grow up to be either a world-famous Irish river dancer or else a karate champion.  At least he's a happy little kicker.

So for something new and different, I made a card! ;)  Actually, two.

Like yesterday's card, it's an oversized flower made with a smoosh technique, but this one was a little bit different.  Helen Read had posted a card this week with a link to a tutorial on Patty Bennett's blog, and I just had to see how it was different than what I'd been doing.  Actually I do a few different watercolor wash techniques; sometimes I spritz water on watercolor paper and use AquaPainters to add some color (like this card); sometimes I scribble on my largest acrylic block with markers, then spritz that with water and use it like a stamp (like on this card).  Yesterday I dabbed the edge of my ink pad on a Stamp-a-ma-jig imaging sheet, spritzed *that* with water, and then smooshed it on my white cardstock.  So today, following the video tutorial, I inked up some smaller acrylic blocks with my ink pads and smooshed them around on wet watercolor paper.  Then I sent that through the Big Shot with the Rose Garden Thinlits and used it to make an inlaid design with some Tranquil Tide and Elegant Eggplant cardstock.  I'm just going to keep typing "smooshed" until my computer gives up and accepts it as a real word.  Smooshed smooshed smooshed.

Haha, the red squiggles DID disappear.

Anyway!  Check out this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I traced the edge of a dinner plate to get my curve.  Easy peasy.

Also take a looksie at the beautiful colors at the Color Throwdown:

I used Elegant Eggplant, the retired Pistachio Pudding (there just wasn't a good substitute in the current greens), Flirty Flamingo (hubs heard Patty Bennett say "Flirty Flamingo" on the video tutorial when I watched it the other night and he made fun of it), and Tranquil Tide.  I thought Tranquil Tide stamped on the Pistachio Pudding cardstock would be a little too stark for what I wanted, so I inked up the Post Script stamp with Pistachio Pudding ink and then sponged on some Tranquil Tide.  I ended up with a green kind of in between those colors and it was soft enough that I was quite pleased with my genius idea.  Whee.

But after I made that card, I had a perfectly usable watercolor outline of the rose and leaf, so I made a second card.

This one is kind of a stepped-down version; I used a mask to stamp the Post Script curvy bit right on the white card base, and used just the outline instead of doing another inlay (which looks great, but takes a while to make and will leave you with glue all over your fingers).  To jazz it up a bit, I added a few metallic enamel shapes...I'm never sure about just where to put those to look like a random scattering.

And there's both cards together.  The rose watercolor was done with Flirty Flamingo and Elegant Eggplant; the leaf with Pistachio Pudding and Tranquil Tide and I'm beginning to think Tranquil Tide is one of those colors that gets along with EVERYBODY and I love it.

Wow, I've been a Chatty Cathy today.  Shutting up now.  Cheers y'all, and have a great weekend!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rose Wonder, Post Script
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant, Flirty Flamingo, Tranquil Tide, Pistachio Pudding
Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Pistachio Pudding, Elegant Eggplant, Tranquil Tide, Watercolor Paper
Accessories:  Rose Garden Thinlits, Metallic Enamel Shapes, dinner plate for tracing