Color Burst Butterfly

It seems that if I haven't worked a piece to death, it isn't going to make me happy.  This 4.25" X 5.5" piece began as a card front with a background stamp of lines crisscrossing.  Then I painted over them with a yellow Neocolor crayon.  I liked the start and it sat waiting for what should be next.

The next came when I thought I'd like a Color Burst butterfly stamped on.  I put some Merlot color burst powder on a plastic surface, spritzed with water, then set my butterfly rubber stamp in the puddle, lightly dabbed some water off on a newsprint pad then stamped on my piece.  I liked it well enough until I decided to add some illegible writing.  I stamped that on and immediately was sorry.  It hit the trash right away.  Later I removed it from the trash to try and fix and save it.

I'm not a big fan of gesso, but I thought that might lighten everything and help.  Too light.  I also don't like the way gesso feels and I don't like putting a clear protective finish over it.  I took an emery board and ran it across the whole thing.  Better.  I can live it.  After that I got out the Yellow Ochre color burst and painted what you see now.  That I like very much now.  For some reason I like the sloppy look of it.

I thought I'd stamp words of somekind on it for a card, but I can't seem to decide what kind of card.  Then I decided I really love it and want to keep it.  Maybe I should start an art journal for these small pieces that surprise me.

But here's the thing.  I only am pretending to be an artist.  So I can't decide whether it is finished or not.  Whether it needs something more or not.  I'm also afraid to mess it up again.  What do you think?  Any advice?

When I look at these photos, I don't see anything special.  But when I look at the real piece, I still love it.  That is confusing.   

Doctoring the Color Bursts

I've come to the conclusion that Color Burst powders are not a product for me.  This card is not completely unfortunate, but unfortunately Color Burst powders have kicked my butt.

Here's how this card started.  If you look quite carefully and with a magnifying glass, you will see the Color Burst powders.  You aren't supposed to have to use very much.  

I think maybe a little more is needed.  Which I did add some more.  The purple bottle especially seems to have more colors inside than just purple.  Hmmm.

  

I started over with the circles shown in the first photo and the one below.  But my Color Burst did not do much better at all.  Well I got out my Neocolor II water-soluble crayons and did some watercolor doctoring trying to save the poor card.  It was salvageable until I decided it might need a little something else.  I stenciled lightly the harlequin background.  I should have listened to myself when myself told me NOT to add a little something else!  Will I never learn.  

My daughter is getting this card anyway.  She's also getting a backup supply of Color Burst powders.

Playing with Color Burst

I received a set of Color Burst watercolor powders by Ken Oliver for my birthday.  My first play with them was a really dark ugly mess.  So far they've been really hard for me to control the powder.

This time around didn't start out much better either.  I would get either too little powder or way too much powder on the paper.  I tried squeezing small puffs of powder and tried shaking.  My daughter now tells me to tap.  So next time I will tap.  

I punched hearts from the better pieces,

stamped some words on them, inked the edges then stitched them to my card base.  Then added a tiny puffy heart sticker to each heart. 

The stitches on the left are a rubber stamp.  I love this stamp set that includes a variety of stitches.

I used two different sentiment stamps on the inside of the card.

My parents will be married 68 years come June 5th.