Altenew February 2017 Inspiration Challenge

I was pretty excited yesterday when my Altenew Adore You Stamp and Die Bundle came in yesterday's mail. I've entered one project at the blog already, but I've been hoping this new set would arrive in time for me to use it since we can have more than 1 entry.

If you've been to my blog before, you know that although I have Copic Markers, I'm not all that comfortable with them.  I've had them for more than 10 years but lately I've been trying to practice and I think it's helping a lot!  I'm actually starting to understand why people like them.

I started this card by selecting several of the images from this set and heat embossing them with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder on Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  I used a variety of Red, Violet and Red-Violet Markers to color in the blooms while choosing G and YG markers for the leaves. I'm sorry I didn't write any of them down.  I just played until I came up with a combination I liked and then repeated it or used similar colors for flowers that were to be adjacent to whichever one I was coloring.

Aga is hosting this month and her image of the Bougainvillea was taken in Majorca, Spain.  I was in Phoenix in January and my sister-in-law has these gorgeous bright pink bloomed plants growing in her back yard.  They are also very commonly seen on the wrought iron balconies of the French Quarter in New Orleans although the ones I seem to remember were purple rather than pink.  I'm sure lots of other warmer winter places have them as well.  While my body is tired of the cold weather this year, my mind knows it has been a pretty mild winter here in Northeastern Oklahoma.  We didn't even get a single snowfall this year except when we traveled back home to Kansas for Christmas and then we got ice with it.

The nice thing about art is that you can make it be for whatever season you are longing for at the moment and I am longing for Spring.  My issue of Better Homes & Gardens arrived this week with a cover full of tulips which probably explains why I stamped so many of them in the past week.

There's lot of inspiration for this challenge at the Altenew Blog and I better get posting mine if it's to be included!  I interpreted the off white color in the inspiration image as gold which is my go-to neutral!  I used gold watercolor for some spatter on my white card base and the sentiment is one included with the Adore You Stamp Set.

Thanks for stopping by to look at my project and be sure to stop over at Altenew as well to see the projects there!