There are times...

...when you wish you had left well alone.

I decided to take a day's leave as it had been a pretty hectic week and headed off to the Barleylands craft village. Although the day had started with thunder storms it turned into a beautiful day and I spent a glorious afternoon sitting in the courtyard by Pinnacles...colouring.

The flowers and butterflies turned out better than I could have hoped for but...

 ...the white background seemed too stark. This is where I should have put things away and come back to it later but oh no, I had to carry on and started shading the background...

 ...the shabby distressed look was not doing it for me so I tried giving it a water wash but that didn't work either. So I had to bite the bullet and finish off the background colour.

All the butterflies were coloured using Tumbled glass, Broken china and Mermaid lagoon Distress markers.

The flowers were each coloured with a different combo of three shades...

 ...this one uses Milled lavender, Victorian velvet and Dusty concord.
For this one I used...

...Dried marigold, Spiced marmalade and Rusty hinge.
I had just picked up my latest addition to my Distress marker collection...

 ...so made use of it on this one - Scattered straw, Mustard seed and my new Fossilized amber.
I was aiming at red tones for this one...

 ...so used Barn door, Fired brick and Aged mahogany.
This one was more of a pinky red...

 ...using Worn lipstick, Barn door and Fired brick.
The last flower (which was actually the first I coloured)...

...was completed using Tattered rose, Spun sugar and Worn lipstick.
This is the completed piece, shabby background and all...

...I'm still not convinced but have to admit that it looks better now that it is fully dry.

One of these days I will actually listen to myself and walk away before I take that extra step and end up regretting it. That said, I might still frame this and have it near my work desk...............................