I decided to use the retired but absolutely lovely Perennial Essence Designer Series paper as my background. The look of the artist's brushstrokes and the bold mix of colours compliments the swan image which I've used as well as the water lilies in the foreground.
My base is the Heavy Whisper White and then I've used a matte of the Gorgeous Grape to accent the colours in the patterned paper. I fussy cut the swan as well as the water lilies since, alas, there are no matching dies in this set. For the swan I used a light watercolour wash of Smoky Slate to add form to the body and neck. For the water lilies, I began with watercolouring the blossoms, using the pretty Powder Pink. Layering the colour in places, adds form to the blossoms, too. The leaves, however, were coloured using my Stampin' Blends. I used both the dark and the light Call Me Clover to give them form as well as carry the colour from the background.
While I adhered the swan directly to the background, I used dimensionals to pop up the water lilies and thus add dimension to the card. A quick heat embossing of the sentiment using white embossing powder, and the card was done. I love the way it turned out, don't you?
Have fun checking out our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and I hope you'll link your creation before the deadline on Monday, September 7th.
I've also entered my card in the following challenges:
Lemon Shortbread Challenge #127 - Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's September 2020 Patterned Paper Challenge
Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #262 - Things With Wings
Simon Says Stamp it in STAMPtember
