Birds, Branches and Raindrops
March 08, 2014
Good Saturday morning. My project today was made for the Splitcoaststampers Inspiration Challenge. Our inspiration was a Pinterest site with a Rain Theme. We didn’t have to put rain or raindrops in our project but I found it to be a fun challenge. I was inspired by the Birds in Rain Plate ~ Limoges Artist Hand Painted Gilt French Porcelain found here. My birds and branches don’t even come close to the beauty of the scene on the plate but I was inspired and had fun anyway.
I started by cutting the Large Bird on Branch twice and one Bare Branch using watercolor paper. I watercolored the pieces using Distress Reinkers. I place small drops of reinker in the lids of my ink pads and use them as my palettes. I add small amounts of water with the ink to get the color consistency I want. I always have a little drop of pure reinker off to the side so I can pull in more color as I go. I lightly apply a clear water base to the image before I start painting. This steps allows the color to move freely when applying the the ink.
I watercolored the background sky by applying a fairly wet clear water base to my paper and then applied almost full strength reinker lightly with a large brush. I swirled the brush around leaving spots with no coverage to create a cloudy sky affect.
I cut the frame using a die from my Spellbinders Matting Basics B set, applied mounting tape and attached it over the sky base. I attached the bare branch first using glossy accents. I attached the front bird and branch with glossy accents and a mounting tape. I tucked the second bird in behind the front branch and attached it with mounting tape.
I applied Viva Crystal Clear Glass Effect Gel to the leaves, flowers and branches with an old brush to give a wet appearance. It is hard to see the wet in the larger photos. Here’s a closer view.
Thank you for coming by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Card size: 5.5" x 4.25"
