Sad to Happy-ish

Last night, I decided to have a play, mixing stamps on a bought paper, which was very pretty.  I don't usually buy papers as I prefer to create my own backgrounds, but I wanted these for a particular purpose.  Then, of course, I was left with a load of papers that I did not know how to use.

I did a class earlier this year with the lovely Maria Simms, where we were using bought papers combined with stamps and gilding flakes, which gave me some ideas.  I also did another class last year with Sally-Ann Moore and Kim Shaw, who were also giving us ideas of what to do with unwanted papers.

So, I grabbed a sheet of paper from the book last night and just went with the stamps I already had on my table and got to work (play).  Just stamping the flowers and colouring them definitely did not work and I went to bed thinking "Oh well, it is only a piece of paper and I learned that it did not work like that."  However, in the morning, I had another look and decided to add a watercolour wash over the whole piece to see what happened.  I used my new favourite pens, the Sakura Koi Brush Pens, which are so beautiful to use and the colours are so lush, and these two were the results.

This first one used a Tim Holtz stamp, which I stamped with Archival Black and coloured with the Sakura pens and the blender.  All the birds and flowers at the top are shiny and part of the original paper.  I used the same colour for the wash as I had used to colour in the flowers, and applied it from the pens with a waterbrush, and aimed for the random application with no harsh lines.  You cannot see it but I also added some clear Wink of Stella on the main flowers and dotted it around in the background.  The Wink of Stella are lovely for adding some subtle glitter.

This was the second piece and the flowers here are from the Clarity range and are the Shepherd's Purse, designed by Mandy Branston.  I used exactly the same techniques on this one, just a different colour.

From something that was only fit for the bin, I am quite pleased with these results of a bit of experimentation.