Happy Little Stampers Watercolour: Bling

Heading into February, it seems only fitting to add a little BLING to what can be a dark and dull month here in my part of the world. And so Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge is offering bling as February's challenge! The bling is optional of course; we love to see any watercoloured project in the gallery. 

While deciding what I wanted to make for this month, I discovered two different hydrangea images that I had stamped and die cut previously. I thought it would be fun to paint them both to see what happened. Here's the first one: 

This hydrangea is from Technique Tuesday, and it is stamped in black and embossed with a pearly-sparkly powder on watercolour paper. For this image, I decided I wanted to use my Zig watercolour markers. For each petal, I added a few strokes of light blue and mauve, then blended them together a bit with a paintbrush. I purposely tried not to overblend, as I wanted each colour to stay distinct as well as letting some white show through. I used medium green on the leaves, again trying not to blend the colour too much. After putting the card together, I added some Stickles to the centres of the florets. Sparkly embossing powder and Stickles: my level of bling. ;) I'm adding this to Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Anything Goes challenge. 

I also had a much larger hydrangea from Ellen Hutson that I'd embossed in white on watercolour paper: 

This time I got out my Gansai watercolours. I started with a light wash of blue then mauve, letting them blend more this time. Once that was dry, I went back in with a fine paintbrush and the blue, deepening the colour around the floret centres. The main panel is blended with bundled sage distress oxide ink. This time for bling, I added a die cut foil sentiment and gold Nuvo drops to the florets as well as a trio under the sentiment. 

Be sure to check out the beautiful makes on the Happy Little Stampers blog today - watercolours and bling are all you need to join us! And even the bling is an option... ;) 

Supplies: (good friend) Hero Arts layering & (?) green cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Technique Tuesday Happy Hydrangea & Hero Arts Cheer Up stamps, Versafine onyx black ink, Altenew translucent pearl embossing powder, Zig watercolour markers, MFT stitched rounded rectangle die, Frosted Lace Stickles; (happy birthday) Neenah white & $ store gold foil cardstock, Canson watercolour cardstock, Essentials by Ellen Mondo Hydrangea stamp & die, Totally Awesome stamp, Versamark, Versafine onyx black & bundled sage distress oxide ink, Wow clear & white embossing powder, Gansai Tambi watercolours, Paper Smooches Christmas Words 2 & MFT stitched scallop rectangle dies, bright gold Nuvo crystal drops