The Flower Challenge #47

Hi everybody!! Another month has whizzed on by, can't believe its August already. Global Warming is definitely on form at the moment. August is the coldest month for us usually in New Zealand but it was so hot yesterday and last night, I didn't even light the fire! So bizarre but really lovely being outside.

Time to grab out your bling as this months theme at The Flower Challenge is all about 'Sparkle'. You can use glitter, glitter pens, embellishments.....its totally up to you as long as you have a floral theme to your project.

I don't use sparkle too much on my cards. I love using my Wink of Stella but that's pretty subtle and I'm addicted to Studio Katia Pearls which have a lovely shine but I don't use glitter very much. Decided to have a go with some glitter embossing powder and see what happens:

I got this floral stamp just last week and couldn't wait to use it. Although I saw on IG that Kathy Racoosin coloured this image and of course it looks spectacular, so I'm a bit scared to share mine....

Using a piece of Strathmore Watercolour CS I heat embossed the MFT Stamps 'Loosely Lined Flowers Background' stamp with WOW! Metallic Gold Sparkle Embossing Glitter. Its really sparkly but hard to see, here's a closer look:

I then spent some time watercolouring around the flowers with my Zig Real Color Brush Pens, using 'Light Blue' and then 'Colbalt Blue' focusing the most colour against the edges of the flowers. There wasn't enough depth so I grabbed my Faber Castell pencils and used a dark blue and black to go right up hard against the flowers. Black makes such a difference!! I then used an Altenew Watercolour Brush Marker 'Desert Night' to add detail to the flower stamens and middle of the flowers.

I wasn't satisfied with how it looked but didn't want to colour the flowers themselves so I had an idea to splatter with black paint. This is something I NEVER do so was very scared I would ruin it. I mixed up some black Gansai Tambi paint and flicked away a few times. I loved how it looked!! Once the panel was dry I trimmed it down to 5x5 inches and adhered to a square card base.

The MFT Stamps 'Hugs' die was die-cut 3x from black CS, glued together and then to the card front. I also white heat embossed the sentiment from MFT Stamps 'Sassy Pants Best Friends' on black, added two more strips of black CS behind it and glued to the card. To finish off I decided to add a few Nuvo Crystal Drops in 'Ebony' BUT its been so long since I used it, the liquid was mega thick and wouldn't smooth out. So I stuck a toothpick in it and scooped some of it off and added to other spots on the card. And I added more 'Sparkle' but putting lots of Wink of Stella on the 'HUGS' die-cuts.

I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamps - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Anything Goes'.

You have until Tuesday 25th August to link your projects to The Flower Challenge and we will be back on the 15th with a few more ideas for you. If your needing more inspiration, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created for you. Can't wait to see your sparkling projects in the Gallery!!

Take care
Shona