Garden Dirt: Flowering Clover, a Swatch for Underpainting with Copic Marker

 

Need a quick bit o' luck?

Saint Patrick's Day is almost upon us.

Uh oh... so soon? Already? Wait, what month is it anyway?

If you're anything like me, you've totally lost track of days and months. Luckily, I've got a quick coloring project for you today, just in case you need to pop a card into the mail, pronto!

Hello, my name is Amy Shulke and I'm the illustrator and art instructor over at VanillaArts.com. Welcome to another edition of my color swatch series here at Power Poppy-- The Garden Dirt.

Are you wondering why I'd name a collection of beautiful color combinations after dirty ol' dirt? It's because in realistic coloring, we take pretty colors and cover them with other pretty colors to make muddy colors. The real color of shade and shadow is always a little yucky, a little muddy, and a little dirty.

You can read more from my Garden Dirt series here.

Sometimes I color for realism. Other times, I color for fun.

If you're a fan of Marcella's stamps and digis, you're pretty darned used to coloring leaves.

So even though shamrocks and clover are cute as the dickens, they're still... ho hum... sigh... just another green leaf using the same old green Copic Markers and colored pencils.

Unless we have a little fun with the underpaint.

Check out the shady spots on my green clover leaves here. See that funky shade color? What is that weird color?

Would you believe it's the same color as the clover blossom?

Pink under Green makes a shady green

I know it sounds weird but weird color is what we're after.

Last month I shared with you about layering green under pink. This month we're reversing the combo because this magic trick works both ways. Green and magenta sit opposite of each other on the color wheel and when opposites cross paths, the color get a little wild and funky. 

To color the Shamrock n' Roll digital stamp, I started with RV55 and layered two leafy green markers over the top. I have no idea what to call this new color. Gink? Preen? I don't know but it sure is fun to make.

And guess what?

This same marker combination can be used on several of Marcella's clover-ish shamrocky floral images. Try it on Clover and Pansies, Wish You Luck, Asters Abuzz, or the magnificent Lumious Bouquet with its oversized Japanese Peony blossom and clover.

Green, pink, gink, or preen, it comes out a little different every time. I color with gink and preen a lot. When I'm working with a pink blossom, it's really hard to resist the ginky temptation.

Try it, you might be a ginky kind a person too.

Let's color Flowering Clover together!

I've got a special treat for you today. 

Head on over to my site at VanillaArts.com to download the FREE Flowering Clover recipe guide. I've included a few photos of the process plus a couple of tips to help you make the most of this odd blending combination.

Download the FREE Flowering Clover recipe guide here.

And if you're looking for an online class to really explore pink and green, you're in luck!

My Verdant Spring class uses a similar color palette on Power Poppy's Bowl of Beauty digital stamp. We layer green under pink and then green over pink with beautiful results.

All Vanilla Workshop classes are immediate access. Work at your own pace, color it as many times as you want with no expiration date. 

Have fun playing with gink and preen! 

And I'll meet you back here next month with another colorful swatch of Garden Dirt.

Creative Confetti: Inspired by a Song

Happy Tuesday friends! This week's Creative Confetti is all about being inspired by song. Music plays a big part in my life and, like a lot of people, I associate certain songs with certain events or people in my life. Sometimes it's a melody that will make me think of my dad or a song title that takes me back to a summer night, the scent of lilacs moving through the air. How has the magic of song inspired you?

HOW TO PLAY: Make a card inspired by a song! Maybe the title of the song has a flower mentioned in it, maybe a certain melody reminds you of flowers received on a special date? Let your imagination run wild with this!

On to my creation!

I had a few ideas going through my head for this. I originally had The Rose by Bette Midler as my inspiration but then I was listening to the 60's music station on my TV when Crimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells came on. I absolutely love that song and it reminds me of being a kid and sitting on the stairs that led to our family room. My parents had a pool table down there and on Saturday nights they would play pool with their best friends while listening to oldies on the radio. To this day I can still picture my dad standing there with his pool stick waiting to take his shot, his head bobbing to the tunes.

With St.Patrick's Day not too far away I decided to use the digital stamp Shamrock 'n' Roll. I'm a pretty literal person so the image is perfect for the song title plus the title of the stamp set goes nicely with the theme this week :)

After coloring the shamrocks I decided to do the clover in pink. There is a crimson clover that is native to Europe and which has been introduced to the US but I thought that going that deep of red would make the card look too Christmassy. The pink pairs nicely with the green, giving off a nice spring feel!

I had the patterned paper in my stash and it was the perfect mix of greens to go with my image! I wanted to bring in a tad more of that pink so I die cut a panel of pink card stock and angled it underneath a piece of olive green card stock that I embossed with an argyle pattern. I printed out the sentiment from the set and then popped that up across the bottom portion of the card to complete things!

Now it's your turn Creative Confetti fans! Let's see how music inspires you!  Don't forget to link up your creation below so we can ALL see what you've whipped up and you'll be entered into our monthly drawing for a $25 gift code to the Power Poppy Shop. You have all month to play along!

See you soon!
Lisa

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter