I let you know yesterday that a number of Framelits dies from Stampin’ Up! are likely to sell out before the end of the catalogue period. One of the last things I said was to order “as soon as possible to avoid disappointment”. Well I hope you were paying attention because one of the sets mentioned, Wonderful Floral Framelits, sold out overnight. You can still get the Wonderful Romance Stamp Set, the gorgeous Floral Romance Specialty Designer Series Paper and other parts of the suite, so I thought I should show you a project created without the dies.

WATERCOLOUR WITH MARKERS

This card was created following another one of my experiments. After my little ‘accident’ with inks blurring and blending the other day, I thought I should try something a little more controlled.

I began with some Watercolor Paper and used StazOn Jet Black ink to stamp the largest image from the Wonderful Romance Stamp Set. I used my Stamparatus to help me so that I could restamp the image in exactly the same place. This helped me get a good image on the textured surface of the paper.

Then I pulled out an assortment of Stampin’ Write Markers to colour in the image. I had an Aqua Painter ready, and started with a So Saffron marker from the Subtles collection. Working on one leaf at a time used the brush tip to colour the larger leaves and then blended out the colour with the Aqua Painter. Then I let these areas dry while I worked on the next one.

The main flowers started with a Berry Burst marker coloured around the centre. Then using the Aqua Painter I ‘pulled’ the colour out towards the tip of each petal. This process meant that the colour became lighter away from the centre.

On the smaller leaves I began with Pear Pizzazz, colouring the whole of each leaf and softening the colour with the Aqua Painter.

Once that was all dry I was able to go back and add additional colour to each section, allowing it time to dry between each step.

The larger leaves were finished with Old Olive and then Mossy Meadow. The small leaves had Mossy Meadow and then Tranquil Tide added. The main flowers were finished with Fresh Fig pulled from around the centre. On the tiny flowers I added a little Flirty Flamingo marker at the base of each section, then pulled the colour to the tip with the Aqua Painter.

I continued to add more of the darker colours to add depth and shade to the image until I was happy with the result.

One final step remained, painting the around the watercoloured flowers with Pool Party ink. I squeezed the closed ink pad to transfer some of the ink to the inside of the lid. Next using the lid as a palette I added some water to the ink to create a ‘wash’. I then quickly painted around the bouquet image leaving a rough painted border along the edges. With that done I set the piece aside to dry completely

EASY BACKGROUND

I really wanted the floral panel to be the dominant feature on my project. So from the Wonderful Romance Stamp Set I chose the small image with random collection of dots to create a background.

On a layer of Whisper White Card I began by stamping the dots with Mossy Meadow ink. Then I went back over the piece using Fresh Fig ink.

Next I used my Stampin’ Trimmer to cut and score a piece of Fresh Fig Card. I folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder to create a card base. The stamped background was then fixed to the card base with Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow).

In the bottom corner of another layer of Whisper White Card I stamped the largest of the leafy images from the Wonderful Romance Stamp Set using StazOn Jet Back ink. I also stamped the leaves on the front of a Whisper White Medium Envelope.

Next I squeezed the closed Mossy Meadow ink pad to transfer some ink to the inside of the lid. Then I used my Aqua Painter to pick up some of the ink and very quickly add some colour to the leaves. Finally, using liquid glue, I fixed the Whisper White layer inside the card base.

FINAL TOUCHES

At last it was time to put the final touches to the project.

I began with the ‘birthday wishes’ sentiment. This comes from the Varied Vases Stamp Set and was stamped onto the dry watercoloured layer using StazOn Jet Black ink. Once again I used my Stamparatus to help me so that I could stamp the sentiment a couple of times in exactly the same place. This gave me a really crisp black result.

I finished off the centre of the main flowers with a Pineapple Punch Stampin’ Write Marker from the 2018/2020 InColors collection..

Next I used liquid glue to attach the watercoloured panel to a layer of Fresh Fig Card. Then I wrapped some Whisper White Baker’s Twine three times around the bottom of the assembled piece, and tied it in a small bow.

Once I’d added the finished layers to the front of the card base with Stampin’ Dimensionals I was done.

I can’t tell you how happy I am with how this project turned out. I’ve generally tried to watercolour using ‘painted’ ink and not always been thrilled with the results. ‘Drawing’ the ink on the images and then using an Aqua Painter to pull the ink across the paper seemed to have slowed me down. I had no choice but to wait for one layer to dry before adding more colour (or risk ruining my markers). It’s a technique I’ll definitely be using again, and I’ll try to remember to video the process for you too.

Meanwhile despite the loss of the coordinating Framelits, I hope today’s project has shown you that the Wonderful Romance Stamp Set is still worth having.

PRODUCT LIST

If you want all 40 Stampin’ Write Markers in the Brights, Neutrals, Regals and Subtles families, you can buy them as four individual sets, or altogether with a carry case. The InColor markers are not included in the case, but there are 8 empty spaces for you to add any additional markers you may have. You should note that you do not save money buying the 40 markers altogether, but you do get the case which cannot be purchased separately.

BUNDLE BONUS – I purchased the Varied Vases Stamp Set with the coordinating Vases Builder Punch (not used today) using a single bundle item number. This saved me 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included a link to the bundle in case you want to look at this option in more detail.