I’ve been playing in my Craft Cave again, unwinding from a busy week, attempting different techniques, and trying to get-to-grips with water-colouring still. I still prefer to do embossing then water-colouring, as I find this can help stay in the lines, and I also like that some stamps do the shading for you, by having lines where the darker shading should be.

I have had this HUGE Peony stamp from IndigoBlu for ages, found when trying to find something else I wanted to stamp with. I saw this, saw how big it was – A5 rubber stamp – and thought it would be ideal to be the main and only focus on a bigger card.

I began by stamping in Ranger Perfect Medium, and embossing with black detail powder, heat setting it. I stamped it a couple of times as I wanted to try two different colours. Are Peony’s blue and purple/pink? I googled it and found that they do indeed come in a variety of colours. I didn’t need to make any excuses, then.

I took my Zigs – three or four shades of blue, and three or four shades of purple and pink, and went in there. It is a very large stamp, and I found the easiest way was to colour each petal separately. On some part of the flower I started with the lightest colour, then added the darkest and blended with a third colour. I changed tactic part-way through the flower, added water first, then added the colours. I tried to keep the darker colours near the darkest part of the embossing, but rarely strayed outside the lines of each petal. It seemed to take an age…….

I found that when I changed tactics and changed the way I water-coloured, it gave a more natural look to the flower. Even now I couldn’t tell you which part of the flower had which technique.

I then thought the flower was too stark against a white background, and had seen some videos and blogs where shadow had been added around the flower, so I thought I would give it a go. I wet around the flower, a small area at a time, added some grey Zig colour, then dragged it around with the water brush. I also tried adding the colour to the dry card, and dragging it out with the water brush too. In the end, I don’t think it made much difference which way I did it.

Then I had to decide what size for the card base. I went with an A4 sheet of card, folded in half for side opening, cut an inch or so off the bottom, leaving room for a sentiment separate to the flower. I didn’t want the sentiment to cover any part of the flower. I embossed this in white on black card, and stuck it to the bottom, quite liking the effect.

As I have tried for fewer embellishments on my recent cards – I decided to add some to this. Some clear drops which look like dew, I think. It’s been a while, and still like adding them.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Make My Monday – ’embossing’

Tuesday Throwdown – ’embossing’

Colour Crazy Challenge – ‘anything goes’

Crafty Friends challenge – ‘anything goes’

Allsorts challenge – ’embossing’

Hiding in My Craft Room – ‘anything goes’

A Gem of a challenge – ’embossing wet or dry’