Mondo Peony

I absolutely love vibrant cheerful color. It’s what has drawn me to each hobby throughout my life. Beautiful multicolored fabric patterns motivated me to design Christmas stockings and stuffed animals for my girls. Incredible fabrics drew me into quilting.

All manner of paints, inks, colored cardstock, markers, and pens, drew me into card making.

And while traditional Zentangle© tiles are black, white, and shades of gray I cannot help but incorporate COLOR here and there. So what gives, where’s the eye-catching color in this card?

It was time to break out of my comfy zone and the neutral tones of Ranger Distress Ink and my Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens were itching to be used! 

To start things off I used Antique Linen Ranger Distress Ink to stamp those lovely Mondo peonies on Canson XL Watercolor paper.

This was one of my first attempts to use the no line watercolor technique. The idea is that the original stamped lines should give structure to the image without leaving a traditional stamped black outline.

Ellen Hutson’s Mondo Peony stamps were in need of some embellishment with mid-gray, oatmeal, and pale pink Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens.

My technique was to run the tip of the pen along the stamped lines anywhere there would be a shadow. Then I drew the watercolor out with a Faber-Castell Deluxe water brush. I LOVE this brush as I can control the water output so well.

Once painting was complete and I mustered up enough courage, I die cut the piece with Avery Elle-Ments Postage Stamp Die by Heather Campbell. 

All that was left was to pop up the inner piece on piece of craft foam cut slightly larger, tie a piece of twine around the top and adhere both the frame and center piece to a A2 card base.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Endeavor to Breathe · Ink · Inspire.