Birthday Wishes | Gina K. Designs November 2021 Release

Hello there, I hope your week got off to a great start!

The new Gina K. Designs release is live (see what’s new at the moment here) and I got to play with the beautiful Floral Wishes stamp set designed by Arjita Singh. I’ve been wanting to practice loose watercoloring and this image, with its smaller blooms and leaves, was perfect to play with.

I started off by using Wow! Embossing Pad and Judikins Translucent Gold embossing powder to emboss part of the image onto a 4.5″ x 6″ panel of Fabriano Artistico Extra White Cold Press watercolor paper. I used painters tape to tape the panel down to a hardboard panel and then I got out three colors of Altenew Artist watercolors: Cherry Blossom, Sea Shore, and Deep Blue Seas.

I really wanted to avoid overthinking (which I do all the time!) so I set a 30-minute time limit for myself. I quickly brushed clean clear water over the flowers using a large flat brush and then used a small paint brush to drop a bit of Cherry Blossom into the center of each of the blooms. I cleaned the brush and then used it to spread the color over the petals. While the petals dried, I dropped Sea Shore into the leaves and spread the color over the leaves. I used a heat gun to help dry the panel (being careful not to re-melt the embossing powder) and then went back in to intensify the colors, purposely avoiding blending too much to create a loose look. I repeated this several times and then, when the petals and leaves were done, I added Deep Blue Seas to the negative spaces, again adding several layers of color and not taking the time to blend.

When the panel was dry, I stamped the sentiment in black pigment ink and then to finish, I adhered the card front to a card base.

Thank you so much for visiting!