Reminder: The Flower Challenge #42

Hello there!! How are you all coping with all the 'virus' action going on?? New Zealand now has one of the strictest border controls with anyone arriving in our country having to go immediately into 14 day isolation. Its a huge hit for the tourism industry but I think its such a good idea. We even had an Australian guy who was tested in Australia and then travelled to NZ to then find out he's positive.....he should be arrested!! So I hope your all fine and healthy and its the perfect time to stay home and craft!

I'm popping in today to remind you all about our current theme at The Flower Challenge which is everyone's favourite 'Anything Goes'. You can create whatever project you like, as long as it has a central 'floral' theme. And we already have some spectacular entries in the Gallery.

Our Sponsor for this challenge is our very own Rachel of Rachel Vass Designs. Her store on Etsy sells the most incredible digital floral images drawn by herself. She is giving two digital images to the winner of this challenge and has also given them to our DT to use for our cards. She is such a sweetheart!

Way back in January I purchased an Online Card Class  'The Colouring Challenge Roadtrip'. Its an 'online version' of Kathy Racoosins' 'Roadtrip' classes she does around the US. Her colouring skills are spectacular and I need all the help I can get. I finally finished the 3-day classes last week and coloured my image for this card. It was scary but I have to say its the best colouring I've ever done and totally recommend the classes to everyone:

This image is the 'Poppy Spray' from Rachel Vass Designs and it was perfect to try out all my new tips and tricks from Kathy.

I started off by printing the image on to white CS. I then 'Color Plucked' a light, medium and dark colour from my Altenew Artist Markers and 'Color Mashed' them on the image, which basically means blending the colours but not getting to intricate. I then spent quite a while adding shading and details with my very basic Faber Castell pencils and a white gel pen. This is what it looked like before the pencils were added:

 
I don't know what possessed me to try a red marker for my first go with these techniques, it was incredibly hard to blend and I thought I had ruined it all. However, using a dark brown pencil to add the shading (a colour I would NEVER have thought to use) added warmth to the red and it worked out okay.

Once I was finished with the image I used the largest die from the Uniquely Creative 'Cross-stitch Circle Frame Die Set'. It cuts the middle circle and also a frame. I wanted the frame in black so die-cut it twice more from black CS and glued them together. I used a white CS 5x5 inch card base and adhered a piece of dark teal CS. I glued on the black frame and then popped the image up on some black foam. To finish off I added a white heat embossed sentiment (from Studio Katia 'Floral Wreath') and some 'Ripe Persimmon' pearls also from Studio Katia.

I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Use some Green'. Hopefully my dark teal (which is a blue/green combo) will be allowed.....

You have until Wednesday 25th March to link your projects to The Flower Challenge and pop over to the blog to see more Rachel Vass Designs images coloured by the Design Team. 

Take care
Shona