Queen Alexandra Poppies for the Simon Wednesday Challenge

I've had some computer problems this weekend so I got a bit of downtime while hubby was checking everything out.  I had stamped this panel with Versamark and Heat Embossed it using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder several weeks ago to watercolor when I had a chance. I decided Friday Night would be a good time to paint this for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with a theme of Anything Goes.  This stamp is called "Poppy Gems" from Penny Black.  Simon Says Stamp carries a huge selection of Penny Black stamps and I have a few of the floral images. I love Queen Alexandra Poppies (the Pink ones you can see right below).

I always associate Poppies with Bossy Joscie now as she plants poppies each year and her Instagram always says the pictures are taken at Flower Road Farm which is such a happy sounding name, don't you agree? I first saw a Queen Alexandra Poppy in my mom's back yard quite a few years ago.  I don't know if they are annuals or perennials. I used to know about lots of flowers and usually had some planted but my hubby has a habit of mowing over them so I gave up several years ago trying to have any in my yard.  He planted a couple of Dahlias for me a year or two back, but even those got mowed over when they were barely up out of the ground, so I gave up. That's probably why I do so many floral cards, because I miss having them in my own yard to look at.

To do my watercolor I used two Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens in Light Pink and Deep Green with a water brush. As always, watercolor is about the layers so I just added in the color one layer at a time and deepened it where I needed to on the additional layers. Like anything else we do, it takes a bit of practice and I have no idea if the method I use is technically correct, but I'm okay with that.  I just enjoy the process of building the color layer by layer.  I'm getting better about respecting some of the white or lighter space in my colors but I still need a lot of practice. I can't tell you how to do this type of card, I can only tell you what I used and what I did.

A big part of watercolor is knowing your mediums and how they react with water.  Get some inexpensive watercolor paper and just try it. Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper is my favorite and I buy the pads of it at Hobby Lobby with a coupon usually.  Sometimes I get it on Amazon but I always take it to Fed Ex and have it cut down into card sized panels.  I also do this with my Stamper's Select White.  I cut one pack in half to make top folding horizontal cards and then I take 3 packs to have them cut in half vertically to make top folding vertical cards. This saves me a lot of time so that I don't have to stop what I'm working on to make a card base.  I use White Card bases 90% of the time.  I still always have at least one pack of paper that is uncut in case I want to make a larger card but that almost never happens. Probably any big box office supply store will be able to do this for you, so check around.

The banner is from the Papertrey Ink Tag Sale Quilted Die Set and I sat and made several up on black and white cardstock the other day while hubby was on my computer.

This is all I have for now but thank you for stopping by and I love it when you take time to leave an encouraging comment.