Before & After: Hothouse Flowers

Hello!!!

Counting down the final challenges for my CNT summer challenge group...sniff, sniff...today's theme is 'Hothouse Flowers'.

I've been eyeing the lily stamp on Mash plate Mash-49 for this since the day I saw the theme. But given that the stamp is about as obvious as you can get, I didn't want to go an obvious route with the rest of it. So I decided to use some unexpected colors. :)

I started out with a lovely base of Barielle's Green Opal, a beautiful moss-green color with silver flecks and a little (I mean absolutely teeny) spray of orange flecks--just enough to make you wonder if they're really there:

Barielle's Green Opal in the shade

Barielle's Green Opal, in the sun

Then, to make my flower design, I decided to try a technique I've been playing around with...I stamp a 'guide' stamp of my targeted stamp, fill it in with color, and then stamp over it again in a contrasting color. I have some dark reddish lilies that I love, so I thought I'd go with that sort of color here:

For the accent nail, I stamped and filled with Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes, and then stamped over with China Glaze's Brownstone. For the other fingers, I did the opposite.

This isn't the easiest technique to do, but I love the results. I also am really happy with this color palette, it has a very vintage feel. :)

I hope you enjoyed it, thank you for stopping by! Please take a moment to go look at the hothouse flower manis by the other CNTs, linked below. :)

M.