Floral Sympathy Card

I recently learned that the mother of an old friend of mine had passed away. So I created this card for my friend & her husband, just to let them know I'm thinking of them. I based my design on the sketch for the current Fusion challenge. I rotated the sketch to be a landscape format & flipped the 2 panels to put the greeting on the smaller one.

I cut a piece of Strathmore Smooth Bristol paper to 5.5x3" for my image panel. I stamped the main flower from Essentials by Ellen's "Mondo Hydrangea" set multiple times. I heat embossed as I went with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder, and masked after each embossing to stamp the next cluster. I did make sure to turn the stamp with each new impression, so I didn't build up any pattern. I finally ended up with a panel full of hydrangea blossoms.

To color the flowers, I used 2 Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers--a violet and a blue--and a water brush to blend/lighten the colors. I added a light yellow-green for the stems and flower centers. I started by coloring the fullest blooms, that you can see all 4 petals on, because they were the easiest to see what petals went together. As I colored more and more blossoms, it got easier to see how the flowers were turned. I didn't worry about a light source or shading; I just wanted a panel full of subtly-colored blooms. After I had finished coloring, I set that panel aside to dry.

I cut another strip from light blue cardstock, and die cut the top edge with a Lawn Fawn "Stitched Hillside Borders" die. After positioning the "sympathy" from Avery Elle's "With Sympathy" stamp set, using my MISTI to help me get it straight & positioned right, I added the small "with" from the same set. I stamped them on my blue cardstock with Versamark ink, and heat embossed with Liquid Platinum. I adhered the image panel even with the top edge of a white A2 landscape card base, and then adhered my greeting panel below it.

I'm also entering this card in the August Ellen Hutson "Mix It Up Challenge."