Succulent Garden

I thought by having a craft room in the attic I would have peace and quiet from three cats, but apparently not! The youngest cat has found out how to climb the metal ladder up to the attic. Elise now thinks the attic is the perfect place for the best cuddles which means I often have a kitty on my lap while crafting. She is very adorable but also very demanding and very often also in the way of my projects :)

Elise on my lap! a 3 year old Kurilian Bobtail.

With Elise's help (lying on my lap) I wanted to make something simple. I decided to do some water colouring with one hand - the other hand busy stroking Elise. I coloured a flower from the "So in Love" stamp set from Stampin' Up! with Rich Razzleberry/ Real Red/ Daffodil Delight water colour pencil and blender pen to work in the colour. Very easy and very quick.
I coloured the flowers with different techniques. The flowers on the right; I coloured around the edge and blended the colour in small circular movements towards the centre of each leaf. Flowers on the left; I did the opposite, I coloured inside the leafs and blended toward the edge. I applied colour twice to give the flowers more intensity.
I loved using a blender pen instead of an aqua painter. I feel I have more control over the colour with a blender pen, but I also feel it is easier to get more colour with the aqua painter. I think for bigger projects the aqua painter is better, but it might really just be an individual taste.
The flower itself is stamped with Cherry Cobbler or Daffodil Delight ink pad. I used whisper white, smoky slate and cherry cobbler cardstock, smokey slate ink pad for sentiment and smoky slate ribbon. And I used designer paper from the Succulent Garden series. I love the papers from that range, very versatile and very pretty.
The cards are not as big as you might think, approx 5.5x4.5 inch and you can pretty much use any sentiment you like. I think my favourite is the bottom left one. I like how the flower pops out, But I do also like the yellow flower, very suitable for a birthday around Easter.

Cards are from 22nd January 2017.