More is More

Being sick and lying on the couch for a few days has gotten me a little behind on things, but yesterday I finally felt like stamping a bit and what better way to ease my way back in than using some already-colored images.  My uncle had a surgical procedure a little over a week ago and along with magazines and snacks for the waiting room, I packed up all my Copic markers and a variety of stamped images.  I only ended up coloring a few that day, but the one I was most anxious to make into a card was the Hydrangea image by Lockhart – my first time using it.

Hydrangeas are my second favorite flower – right after roses – and I had been wanting this mage for quite awhile thanks to my friend Sharon and her gorgeous creations with it.  We have two hydrangea bushes.  The one in the backyard is HUGE and the flowers range from pale lavendar to dark purple.

This is what I had in mind as I colored this image.  When I sat down yesterday to make a card with it, I pulled out my Prismatics color swatch book to find some pretty coordinating cardstocks and came up with Majestic Purple Light and Razzleberry Dark (similar to pomegranate or cranberry – not as brown as it looks in the photo).  I used my rectangle nestabilities to cut and emboss the image as well as to mat it.  I decided to use a white card base (Paper Trey) with a fairly wide border for high contrast.  The sentiment is SU Warmest Regards and the ribbon is SU cream grosgrain.

Our second hydrangea bush is in the side yard and it’s a scrawny little bush that didn’t look like it was going to make it for a couple of years there, but it has the most beautiful bright pink/almost red blooms!  I realize there is stuff you can add to the soil to change/influence the color of the blooms…but do they have a natural color different for each plant or is all determined by soil?  These two plants are only about 25 feet from each other.

I’m not a gardener by any stretch of the imagination.  I love love love a beautiful garden and I really did try for a few years to love gardening, but I just couldn’t do it.  I hate to get dirty (even as a small child I never liked dirt or mud on my hands), I don’t really like to be outdoors very much,  I have a bad knee that won’t tolerate a lot of squatting and kneeling, and ok let’s face it…I’m just too much of a *princess*!   bwahahahhhahahaha!  

But if I could have a beautiful English garden with a picket fence and tons of roses and hydrangeas and foxglove and a wicker chaise – all requiring no maintenence – I’m there!

Thanks for stopping by and happy Monday!