Same Image...Different Seasons...

Happy Wednesday, everyone. I didn't get back to creating as quickly as I had hoped, but it's all for good reasons. This year, my birthday fell on a Friday. Friday birthdays have a way of turning into "birthday weekends" and that's how it went this year - celebrating with a friend who's birthday is exactly one week before mine, then a couple celebrations with family - lots of fun!  Hmmm...maybe I should make this a yearly thing! LOL

Today I'm sharing three cards that all used the same stamp for the background image. It's been quite a while since I played with this stamp, and I wanted to try something new (to me).  I changed the colors/hues I used, and ended up with three cards that "represent" spring, summer, and autumn. And once again, I played with watercolors, so the cards are a bit more clean-and-simple than my usual style. But a change now and then is a good thing!

I made a watercolor wash in the background, then used watercolor markers on the stamp, spritzed it with water, and applied the stamp to the watercolor paper for the background.

Here's "spring" - bright and fun colors with a medium sky-blue background wash...

I did double-stamp the large dandelion on the left side...the orange appeared too strong, so I added a bit more water to the orange and let it run together more. After the watercolor stamping was dry, I added another layer of only the plum color, stamping it dry (no water spritz prior to stamping) to show the details and turn the original orange stamping to the background shadow. The only embellishments I added were a single punched butterfly, and a sprig of spring-like stems and leaves from the top of a craft-store flower stem...

Supplies:

Background stamp:   Hero Arts "Dandelion Frame"

Sentiment stamp:   Unity Stamp "Touch the Sky"

Butterfly punch:   Martha Stewart          Pearls:   Recollections          Florals:  local craft store

Miscellaneous:   Sakura Koi watercolors, Marvy LePlume markers, Ranger Stickles

Here's "summer."  There's a paler background wash, more bright yellow and green in the background, and just a bit lighter overall with just a few extra-bright areas of orange. The stamped sentiment and three butterflies were added as the only embellishments...

Here are some closeup detail shots...

Supplies:

Background stamp:   Hero Arts "Dandelion Frame"

Sentiment stamps:   Papertrey Ink "Mega Mixed Messages," "Botanical Silhouettes"

Butterfly punches:   Martha Stewart          Mini pearls:  Queen & Co.

Miscellaneous:   Sakura Koi watercolors,  Marvy LePlume markers, vellum, Ranger Stickles

And finally, here's "autumn."  The colors are richer, deeper, more traditionally autumnal (and you can see that just by the difference in contrast between this photo and the pastel colors of the other two cards). There's a twine wrap and bow accented with a raffia bow, a piece of a seed stem, and a simple stamped sentiment...

Here are a couple detail shots...

Supplies:

Background stamp:   Hero Arts "Dandelion Frame"

Sentiment stamp:   Winnie & Walter "The Big, The Bold, The Happy"

Seed stem:   Petaloo         

Miscellaneous:   Sakura Koi watercolors, Marvy LePlume markers, jute twine, raffia, seed spiral

Here's a side-by-side shot of all three cards for easy comparison...

Thanks for stopping by today...I hope you're having a wonderful week!