Sneak Peek #2: Botanical Dream

Please help me welcome our newest illustrator, Asela Hopkins! I am so thrilled to be working with her and her images. When I first saw her "Botanical Dream" set, I knew it was time for me to update my bathroom decor*, the first I'll share today, the rest you'll have to come back to see! This uses one of my favorite images in the set, a potted orchid.** To me, they are the epitome of luxury and elegance.
I really wanted this project to have layers, so we have a sentiment on the front piece of glass, the image in the middle, and a terrific quote in the back. I got this beautiful shadow box at Hobby Lobby (all frames on sale this week, half off, that made this one only 7.50!) It came with the pearl straight pins to tack up your pictures/papers. Such a great look and so easy to commit, being able to change it (uncommit!) whenever you want! I colored the orchids** with the Koh-i-noor pencils. Personally, I always love being given these little hatch marks on an image to show me where to shade, fool proof! :) The texture of the watercolor paper made it a bit difficult to completely blend and get down in all those little nooks (you can't), but I like the way it turned out, wanted the texture to match my background. (It also gave the pot a nice texture to match my rustic tile.) After cutting, the long delicate, stem was very fragile so I taped on a piece of wire to help it stand up right and hold it's shape. I made a a little "L" bracket out of a piece of white CS and adhered it with dimensionals to the back of my image and the bottom on the box in the middle. This gives so much dimension to the project!
I put the "Believe" on the outside so that it would cast a shadow onto the inside quote matte at certain angle, a really cool "floating" effect,"moves as you look at it from different angles. The great thing about stamping on glass? If you mess up, it comes right off with Ultraclean! So stamp with confidence! :) I redid it a couple times until I was completely satisfied with the placement/angle and impression. The quote on the inside is on watercolor paper, stamped in palette Noir. I used my Tearing Edge to create the deckled edges. For a more polished look, use a Nestie rectangle :)

Unfortunately, my photography doesn't do this project justice, looks much better IRL! Hard to get close enough to not get a glare/reflection on the glass, hard to show the shadows of both the potted orchid and the "Believe"Where is Kurtis when you need him??! ;) (if you click on the photo the "Believe" is casting a very large low shadow, other times it looks more like it has been "stamped off".

Don't forget to go drop a comment on Gina's blog for a chance to win this set! More sneak peeks tomorrow at midnight, be there! :)

* Here's what was in there before; almost 5 years of stamping experience, new techniques, a need for change and some fabulous new images inspired the do over! :)

**These orchids come in a variety of colors, you can do an internet search to help you with the colors for your shading, I wanted to do white to match my bathroom theme, and used this pic(which has bits of green, yellow and pink) to help me...I had these classic white dendrobium orchids woven into my hair at my wedding, a wonderful memory :)