Creating Depth and Dimension with Alex Syberia Design’s Lotus

Hello everyone! Bonnie from BONNIECAROLLEE.com here with a watercolour featuring LOTUS digital stamp. For today’s card, I am working with Mijello Mission Gold watercolours on Canson XL watercolour paper with a focus on simple techniques to create depth and dimension. This gorgeous digital image was printed twice. The first image was die cut with a stitched rectangle. This panel will be used to create the background. I wet the area around the flowers to apply a colour wash mix of blues and greens. The background colour will be built up and dried between applications of colour. The colour is dropped in with just a bit of help to move it. When dry, the stems are painted with Van Dyke Green.

The finishing touches on the background panel are done using Gouache; an opaque water based medium. When water is added, it is translucent. Even though the flowers will be dimensional, more depth is created by highlighting the area around blooms on the background panel with white gouache. The edges are blended into the the watercolour backdrop with water.
A crosshatch pattern is then created to add some visual interest using a dry brush technique and a fan brush. Finally, the background is spattered with the gouache slightly watered down. The background is mounted on an A2 sized, top folding card base.


The flowers on the second printed image were water coloured using a wet on wet technique. After one petal was painted with clean water, Peacock Blue was applied to the shadow area. The blue-green mix used in the background was dropped in, blending it with the edge of the blue and fading out at the tip of the petal. Light and shadow creates depth. The petals were painted individually and left to dry before painting the ones adjacent to it. When the blooms were dry, they were fussy cut and mounted on foam. The excess foam was trimmed under cutting around the images on a slight angle. Foam was not applied at the base of the flowers and the bud. When they are layered on to the panel, the area without foam is adhered directly to the background allowing the blooms to flow naturally from the stems. Simon Says Stamp’s Big Hugs sentiment was stacked on foam and confetti topped with either White Nuvo or Morning Dew Crystal Drops finish up this card.

Video Tutorial


Thanks so much for stopping by! Happy crafting

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