Happy New Year….I’m Not Crazy….I Do See Blue Elephants

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!

The Color Challenge on Splitcoaststampers today is a fun one.  The colors to use are red, teal and celery.  Teal is not a color I use often as it is a bit too dark for my taste.  But for this challenge I decided to make a couple of "elephants in love" with it and combining their hearts together.  How many of you remember the day when it was the fad for a boy to give his best girl a little silver or gold heart on a chain that was split down the middle? He kept half and gave her the other. I guess I am aging myself. I don’t think the kids now a days are quite that sentimental.

I stamped the first elephant, masked it and stamped the second.  I painted with a watercolor brush and reinker.  I used a dauber to add celery to the lower ground area and decided I needed a little body of water in the scene to add one more touch of teal.  I masked off the top elephant and then use a Post-It to mask off the top side of the water.  I filled in the little area with a dauber and removed the mask.  I used another dauber to complete the grassy area on the other side of the water.  I used a mini tipped sponge applicator to fill in texture in the grass area and then sketched in little flower and grass sprigs with an artichoke marker.  I dabbed on little red flowers with a mini tipped applicator and sponged the grass and sky area with hello.  I did a little free hand heart with red cardstock and cut it in half and added little white dots to make the heart separation show better.  I punched a hole in the trunks of both elephants and stuck the little piece of gingham through so the little heart could appear to hang from both.  I know….I’m a sap! I created a red dotted background layer with my red marker on a scrap piece of watercolor paper. I never am happy layering watercolor paper over pure white cardstock and many times create a background layer out of watercolor paper so I will have a perfect match. I did not any background image to the base layers as I liked the perfectly plain look of the red and teal.

Stamps:  Rubbernecker-Baby Stuffed Elephant

Paper:  Red, Teal, Watercolor

Ink:  Black Brilliance, Adirondack Dye Inks and Reinkers

Accessories:  Gingham, Markers, Brushes, Daubers, Mini Tipped Applicator