Bee birthday

It's always exciting to see what the challenge is going to be each month at CAS Mix Up. This month the topic has been chosen by Viv, whom I have 'known' for many years since becoming acquainted at 'Less is More'. She produces amazing work which never fails to inspire.

As you may see from the prompt, watercolour must rate really highly in the cards. All the colouring in my card used watercolour techniques. 

I began by stamping some patches of Distress Oxide ink using an acrylic block, then spritzing with water to diffuse the colour. I then over-stamped with a grunge splatter stamp with the same ink, adding a little water in the process. 

I coloured the honeycomb by dragging the ink pad over it and then once more spritzing with water. I cut the infill parts of the bee from some card that I had stamped with the ink pad and then wetted.

I decided to add an extra layer to the wings by cutting in white card and using some Black Soot Distress Oxide ink to drag some colour over them with a rough paste brush. It brought out some of the veining.

I had to put the card under a heavy weight to try to flatten it out somewhat as it had become rather bent with all the spritzing.

I made the sentiment panel in Word, drawing a text box and filling it with black and then writing the sentiment using white. Once printed and die cut I gave it a couple of layers of clear embossing to intensify the colour.