Thursday, June 26, 2014

Soft Watercolored Wedding

Today I’m sharing a card using a watercolor wash over a section of the card front panel, using Crisp Cantaloupe and Daffodil Delight reinkers. I stamped the “bride” sentiment over the Crisp Cantaloupe and the “groom” over the Daffodil Delight washes.
I lightly sponged the same colors onto three punched Five Petal flowers. To get the little embossed punched floral centers, I embossed a piece of heavy vellum with the Snowburst embossing folder.  I punched the center of the stars with the scallop from the Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, which fit perfectly.

I hope that you're having a wonderful day!

SUPPLIES:
INK: Crisp Cantaloupe, Daffodil Delight, Memento Tuxdeo Black
PAPER: 100 lb smooth watercolor paper, heavy vellum, Whisper White, Smoky Slate, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pear Pizzazz
SS: Sweet Essentials
BIG SHOT: Little Leaves Sizzlit, Adorning Accents Edgelit, Snowburst embossing folder
PUNCHES: 5-Petal, Itty Bitty punch pack-Scallop, Scallop Edge
ACCESSORIES: Aquapainter, Paper Piercer, sponge, jewels-rhinestones

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Watercolor Flower Fest Thanks

Flower Fest is one of my all-time favorite stamp sets. I don’t know why Stampin’ Up ever did away with such a cute set. The images look like doodles and they’re great for watercoloring, two card trends that are very popular right now.
My card today was inspired by this card by Stephanie. I used the smooth watercolor paper so that I could use my aquapainter to color the stamped images without the paper pilling up. I used reinkers with the aquapainter using Strawberry Slush for the flowers and Lucky Limeade for the leaves.

Thanks so much for visiting! Have a great day :-)

SUPPLIES:
INK: Black stazon, Reinkers – Strawberry Slush, Lucky Limeade
PAPER: 100 lb. smooth watercolor paper, Whisper White CS, Strawberry Slush CS, Gingham Garden DSP
SS: Flower Fest, Happy Watercolor (sentiment and dots)
ACCESSORIES: Aquapainter, jewels-rhinestone



Thursday, June 12, 2014

Watercolor Flower Fest

I’ve been playing around with watercoloring, a medium I love. My dad painted beautiful watercolors, mainly of seascapes. Twenty years ago (gosh, has it really been that long ago?) he gave me some watercolor lessons, but I was busy raising my family at the time, so it became one of those “I’ll get back to it someday” activities.

One of my mother’s day gifts this year was some “fun” money from my son, so I used it to sign up for an online Watercolor for Cards class. I’ve actually only gotten into the first lesson, but it’s got me pulling out my watercolor brushes, paints, and paper, so that I can play around with it all again. I’ve forgotten so much of what my dad taught me, it’s kind of sad. I hope it all comes back as I go through the rest of the watercolor lessons.
The watercolor image above was created using an acrylic block, markers and a spritz bottle of water. I found that the type of paper you use makes ALL the difference. I tried Whisper White, but didn’t like the splotchy look. Then I tried the rough watercolor paper…it was okay, but I wanted a smooth card finish, so I went with a smooth watercolor paper and I really liked the results it gave me.

Here's a quickie explanation of how I created my watercolor background:
1. Color the whole acrylic block randomly in different colors: Daffodil Delight, Poppy Parade, Rich Razzleberry
2. Lightly spritz the block with water, allowing the colors to run together a little bit (too much running and you’ll get a muddy look)
3. Press inked block onto watercolor paper panel, slightly lifting parts of the block to shift the color around. Hold in place for a minute. Carefully remove block. At this time you can tilt your watercolor paper around if you’d like your colors to move and bleed into each other. Allow to dry or use your heat tool to speed up drying process.

I used black Stazon ink to stamp my floral image over the watercolored background , stamping one floral image onto a piece of Poppy Parade CS. I then stamped my sentiment in the lower right corner of the watercolor card front panel.
Give it a try, it's a simple technique that makes a beautiful background!

SUPPLIES
INK: Black Stazon, Stampin’ Write Markers – Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry, Poppy Parade
SS: Retired Secret Garden (SU’s 2014-15 Forever Florals 133976 would look great); Retired sentiment SS?, use your favorite
CS: Whisper White, Smooth 100lb. watercolor paper, Poppy Parade (retired)
Big Shot: Secret Garden framelit (retired)
Accessories: Acrylic Block “I” (118488), Stampin Spritzer (126185), jewels-rhinestones



Thursday, June 5, 2014

Sailboat Baby Card


Today's card uses a digital stamped sailboat image and digital sentiment, with the rest of the card using traditional card making stuff like the Square Lattice embossed CS panel, sponging, Oval framelits, etc.

I had fun creating this card...well, anytime you get to use digital, sponging, texturing and the Big Shot you've got yourself a recipe for fun.

Hope that you're having a fun day, too!

Visit my Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Amy Hooks, to order supplies