Hey, Friends! It's my turn to share for TGIF at The Greetery and these were such fun cards to make! When the BotaniCuts Morning Glory Die set came out, I couldn't resist making several clusters of these super sweet morning glories, all of them inspired by real varieties that we've grown in our own yard, and am excited to share some more of them with you today!
PRO TIP: I die cut white card stock with the Square Dance die and then cut that in half, for the two different cards! It serves as lattice or a fence for the morning glories to be 'growing' on!
PRO TIP: Notice how I took basically the same layout but changed the two cards up, by orienting one vertically and one horizontally! You can do this with a whole set of cards for a gift! Create a set of about 6 cards, coordinating the colors but making 3 cards in one orientation and color combo and the other three in a different orientation and color combo! Also, if there's a particular layout that you love, but maybe you've made it a zillion times and want to do something a bit new, consider how you could flip it the other direction and remake that same layout in a different orientation! We don't always have to completely reinvent the wheel, if there's something we love and is really working well for us!
PRO TIP: If you don't grow morning glories yourself, google them and scroll through the photos of all the real life varieties there are! I bet you'll be shocked at some of the different color combos! They're just so striking! And it'll give you a ton of color inspiration for creating your own paper versions!
So, we have some light blue morning glories that come up every year, and they've got some purple striping down toward the center of the flowers. If you've followed me on Instagram for awhile, you've probably seen me share some of them in my feed or in my Stories! They're SO pretty, and they were the inspiration for these flowers.
PRO TIP: If you don't have a small blending brush, you can buy an inexpensive paint brush to use for blending on fine details like the purple stripes on these flowers!
PRO TIP: Remember when you're blending on ink, to use various amounts of pressure on your blending brush, to create shading! Push harder at the base of the leaves, for instance, where they would naturally be more in the shadows and darker in color than the tips that are fully exposed in the sun/daylight.
PRO TIP: To give these cards just a bit more dimension, blend one a bit of ink in the same or slightly darker color than your card's background! It helps the flowers to come forward a bit and gives the card more depth on the whole.
These morning glories are inspired by another variety that comes up every year at our house. They're purple with a pinky-red striping that comes up out of the center.
PRO TIP: It's ok to not always add color to every die cut element!! Notice the base of the blooms that are tipped on their sides. I left those white, as well as the centers of the flowers! That's because in real life, that's how this particular variety grows! The centers are almost a glowing white, as well as the bases! Leaving those elements white is not only more realistic, but it's also easier! ;)
PRO TIP: One of my favorite things to do when blending ink on leaves, is to add some touches of turquoise or teal to the leaves, just in a few spots! It gives them more depth and makes them a bit more realistic! Just like in real life, when part of the leaves are in the shade they have a more cool-toned appearance. The parts that are in the sun, have more warmth in them. So, it's more than ok to add a little of both, when blending ink on your leaves!
{Morning Glories Card Set supplies -- click on thumbnails}
dawn-mcvey-make-a-wish-the-greetery-1Thanks so much for spending a bit of your day with me! Hope I've given you a bit of inspiration and I'll see you back here again next week, for the new Greetery release! It's gonna be fun!
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