Blue Hydrangea

It's a dreary day here ... cold and wet.  Where did the sunshine go??!!  Oh well, just means that I need to stay inside today and have more time to play in my studio.  I am participating in today's Mojo Monday sketch challenge (Mojo242).  I had a lot of fun making this card ... and I also challenged myself to use some beautiful patterned paper from Memory Box that I've had for about three months and hadn't even opened!  Love the soft hues of this paper and thought it went perfectly with a watercolor hydrangea.  Hope you like.

Today's Mojo sketch (Mojo242)

Here's my version:

"Blue Hydrangea"

Stamps:  Because I care, En Francais (SU!)
Paper:  Marina Mist, Watercolor (SU!); Brioche DP (Memory Box)
Ink:  Stazon Black, Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Marina Mist, Old Olive, Sahara Sand (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Blender pen, white gel pen, Martha Stewart Arched Lattice border punch, sheer white ribbon, Embosslits Beautiful Wings (Sizzix), sponges, two small pale blue half-pearls, sticky strips, adhesives, glue dots, and dimensionals

I stamped the hydrangea in Stazon Black ink onto watercolor paper. I colored the image using a blender pen and ink.  I stamped the hydrangea a second time onto a post-it note, roughly cut it out and used it as a mask.  I stamped the background script in Crumb Cake.  In hindsight, I could have stamped the background first and then the hydrangea because the background is so light.  It would have saved me the trouble of making a mask, etc. - but now that I have the mask, I will keep it in the "Because I Care" case to use again if I need it.

I used a Sahara Sand Stampin' Write marker to outline the whole image to give it depth (hard to see in the photo, but in real life it looks 3D).  I sponged Marina Mist ink randomly along the edge and inside the main panel (also hard to see in the photo - but gives some interest to the script background.

I assembled all the layers as shown in the photo above, popping up the main image panel with dimensionals to add depth.

The butterfly was embossed and cut with the pale yellow paper and then I sponged Marina Mist around the edges so that it didn't fade into the background.  I added two half pearls on the butterfly for interest.

The inside panel is watercolor paper with a 1 1/2" strip fo the blue DP at the bottom and a piece of Marina Mist punched with the arched border (same punch as front of the card).