Italian Blue and White Pottery Inspired

 This Birthday Blooms stamp set is my favourite stamp set,..... for  this week anyway.
 It's in the 2016 summer mini Catalogue from stampin' Up.
I v'e been playing with  this the last day or two whenever I get a few free moments. 

I have a passion for blue and white pottery and this stamped image made me think of some old Italian pottery designs, so I thought I'd colour the image in blue with the hope it would  resemble that old pottery.

To create this look I went back in time and used I technique I haven't used in years.  
It's a very simple technique and is perfect for this image.

 I stamped the image in Night of Navy ink, and using my aqua painter....(the paintbrush you fill with water) 

 I ran the wet paintbrush around the inside edge of the stamped image and over the inside of the image.  
This action  releases some of the ink from the outline image. the ink bleeds and colours in the image as you brush over it. So there's  no need to use paint, markers or colouring pencils to colour it in. 
I guess you could say,  it's kind of self colouring.  
As I brushed water over this image I couldn't help thinking it was a lot like the magic Painting books   I had as a child.

To add  a little extra depth to my colouring, I used a small amount of  the same  ink  I used to stamp the image but with less water and brushed in some of the darker ink into the areas I felt needed to be a little darker.

Once I had finished playing with  navy blue I thought I'd try the same again using  "Cherry Cobbler" ink but this turned out way too pink for my liking. 

My next step was to try again, this time using "Rich Razzleberry".  This time with a little sponging around the edges and added a little sponging into the centre to hide a small smudge.
I quite liked the result and mounted my tiny piece of artwork onto some  " Bravo Burgundy" card stock.

What a surprise!!

I don't get many handmade cards so when this one dropped through the door at lunchtime I was very surprised and very confused.
I love the simplicity, the clean, un-fussy look of this card which was made by my  Upline Amanda.
The reason I was so surprised and confused is because she wrote inside " Belated birthday wishes, Hope you had a lovely day"
Initially I thought it was celebrate my 6th Stampin' up birthday as I joined up in January. Then I remembered Amanda had already sent me a card to mark that occasion.
So I am really confused now especially as my birthday is in August.
Anyway let me tell you Amanda has used the new stamp set called " Grateful Bunch" from Stampin' Up and the coordinating Blossom Bunch punch. Both items can be found in the new summer mini catalogue on pg 22.  I have to say I didn't put this set on my wish list when then new catalogue was released, but it may well work it's way onto my wish list soon, Thanks Amanda.