Watercolored Peonies

For many years I have claimed that Pink is my favorite of all the colors.  And that is still true but I have many colors that I love; Teal, Purple, Turquoise and many others but lately I have been on a Coral kick.

I had been hoping to receive a stamp set I had ordered last week in time for a challenge I was participating in but it never arrived until Monday afternoon. Turns out, I love it even more than I thought I would.  My regular one-stop shop for card making supplies doesn't carry this particular manufacturer.  In fact, so far, it's only available for purchase through their own company called "The Ton" which is a historical reference to "Couture Style" in the British Aristocracy.  It's Effie's desire to bring couture style to the stamps she designs.  I think it is interesting to note that Effie also happens to be a lawyer.

One of the things I most like about The Ton Stamps is their size.  My primary complaint with most of the stamp sets I have is that the images in them are so small.  I love these big bold and beautiful images in The Ton's Peony Series that I can watercolor. This particular one is called Large Peony 2.

I colored this last night using Abandoned Carol Distress Marker with Forest Moss and Mowed Lawn for the leaves.  I know y'all might get tired of seeing Watercolor, but I never get tired of doing it. Even when I do two of the same image in the same colors, they are never the same.

My favorite medium for watercolor is Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Markers which come in a whole slew of colors - 60 in all I think.  But I recently worked on a project where I was trying to stay with one brand of coloring medium and couldn't because I didn't have an orange color in a Distress Marker. I actually have more yellows than oranges and if you you know me very well at all, that is somewhat amusing, *wink*. Anyhow, I added a new color to my Distress Markers in what appeared to be a nice shade of orange called Ripe Persimmon. I'm not really a "pumpkin orange" kind of girl although now I need one that color. Thank goodness for Simon Says Stamp who sells the colors individually so I can add one or two at a time and not have to buy a whole set in one shot. This also allows me to buy only the colors that I personally will use.

So, I got this Ripe Persimmon Distress Marker a few weeks ago but I like to take time to know how each color reacts with water before actually starting a project with it. Distress Markers are ideal for watercoloring as the formulation is designed to react with water each and every time. But I learned early on that they aren't that predictable for watercolor if you haven't used a particular shade before.  I have to know what it does and how it behaves with the water.  And with any watercolor medium, you have to let it dry before you can see the end result. I always talk about how Seedless Preserves is a favorite Distress Ink color and I like to call it "My Little Extrovert" because what goes down as purple becomes pinky purple or a color I would call Thistle.  Well, as I was finishing up some work last night in my studio, I grabbed the Ripe Persimmon really quick with a strip of watercolor paper that had been cut off of a big sheet. I made a mark on the scrap of watercolor paper and then added water to it with a brush.  Oh my goodness - this wasn't the color I was expecting AT ALL!   I'm adding a little swatch here for you to see. There's that orange, then that hint of peachy pink and the golden edges all dependent on how much water you use with the color.  This color needs it's own little nickname too although I can't think of one at this moment.  

When I was a little girl, I used to go and spend the night with my great-grandmother sometimes and there was a persimmon tree in her yard.  That was the sole basis for my color selection of this particular "orange". It was a happy memory and I thought it would remind me of her every time I use it.  And so it will.  *Ü*

The finishing touch on each of these cards is the sentiment from the Papertrey Ink Stamp Set called "Scripted".  The first card also used a technique I learned in a previous class and is one that Laurie Willison taught for this week's Make it Monday at Papertrey Ink.

 The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is Anything Goes featuring Ranger Products.  I'll be entering the top card for the Papertrey Ink Challenge and the second card for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge as well as the Challenge over at Inspired By All the Little Things #8. I was also invited to participate in a Challenge that is new to me called Word Art Wednesday. Thanks for the invite!

Thank you so much for stopping by today and I appreciate all of the kind comments you leave.