Friday 14 November 2014

Altenew November Challenge and Inkspirational Challenge #69 -Shine

Good Afternoon everyone!

This is my entry to the Altenew November Challenge
and to the Inkspirational Challenge #69.

This card was one of the top picks at the Inspirational.

This is a card for my husband's friend who is getting his doctoral thesis today and my husband needed a congratulation card for him. In my opinion, masculine cards are really hard to do and I find it more hard to do a masculine card for a special occasion like this. So, I went for blogland to get inspiration. I saw the November Challenge at Altenew and was really drawn to those metallic embellishments but  thought that silver would be more masculine rather than gold. I chose to play with this Persian Motifs stamp set from Altenew since I think this would make a really elegant card since the flowers are so beautiful. But I couldn't possibly colour these gorgeous flowers in red for a man... so I thought why not to colour them monochromatic black! Would that be cool and masculine?!? But the card needed something "it" to be something special. Search continued. For the past week I've had in mind this challenge at the Inkspirational where the theme for this fortnight is Shine! I love the theme, I just couldn't get the idea until now! The little shine is the thing that this idea was short of. So there is the inspiration for this card.

I started stamping the Persian Motifs with Black Soot Distress ink. I didn't want the black outlines to show so I think it was the forth generation stamping which ended to the card base. I coloured the flowers with Black Soot Distress Ink as well. To get the shine I added Perfect Pearls to the water.  I heat embossed the silver edge on to a scrap watercolour paper to get some masculine texture to it. For the finishing touch I added some black dots with a black marker. Here is the close-up where the shine/shimmer from the perfect pearls is seen better.


Close-up where the perfect pearl shine is seen better.


Here are the challenges' graphics:


Thank you for stopping by today. I really had such a fun time watercolouring these and I am really pleased with the outcome. Hopefully you like them also! Have a wonderful day! 

Marika

13 comments:

  1. Eihän tästä voi olla tykkäämättä, tämä on ihan järjettömän hieno! Väritys on ihan omaa luokkaansa, kuten oikeastaan kaikki tässä kortissa. Ihmettelin muuten hetken, miten olet saanut noin hallittuja ja pieniä roiskeita, mutta kynälläpä tietenkin :D

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  2. That's such an amazing card, Marika. The b/w effect is absolutely stunning. Love it!

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  3. Dear Marika,
    this is such a great card!!! I really love your style!

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  4. Marika, this is just stunning! Your colouring on this gorgeous Altenew Stamp has such depth. So elegant :)

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  5. Um . . .Just give me one second to pick my jaw up off the floor . . . This is stunning! I love the varying tones of gray. Amazing!!

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  6. Striking and so stunning, Marika ... just fabulous! Anita :)

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  7. Tästä tuli upea, Marika! Nuo mustat pisteet ovat "pisteet iin päälle", tosi hyvä idea.Varmasti oli saajalle mieluinen kortti. Toivottavasti nähdään ensi viikolla? Tai viimeistään sitä seuraaalla (silloin kun olen vapaalla). :)

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  8. Wow, what a stunner ... your colouring is fabulous!

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  9. WOW! Perfect colouring; it's invisible that you used a stamp for the flowers and the shades are fantastic!

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  10. Hi Marika! Thank you so much for the comment you left on blog a while back - it was so nice to hear from another blogging "newbie" :) I have looked through your blog and have been completely amazed - your work is so artistic and absolutely stunning! I am in complete awe of your colouring ability - you achieve so much depth in your images. This card is another beautiful example of your work - I love it!

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  11. WOW, WOW, WOW!!
    Shades of Grey..Well done!

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  12. Congratulations on the well-deserved recognition from Inkspirational for this extraordinary card, Marika!! I can't tear my eyes off it!! I'm delighted to meet you and become your newest follower! I'd love to have you visit and join me, too, if you like!! Hugs, Darnell

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