Playing with watercolors

I have always admired the beautiful cards that I have seen others make with watercolor backgrounds and so it was time to try it myself. I taped a piece of Strathmore Paint Pad paper, yes the same paper I use for my pencils, down onto my glass mat and used my Crayola Watercolors and got busy. I applied water to the paper first and then dropped the paint on, but I found that the paper did better with pencils than with wet paints. So it needed a bit of help with a brush.

Once my 9x12 page was dry, I pulled out my dies from my stash and got busy. My first card has a wider frame cut from the paper and then popped up with foam tape. I placed a tea cup stack, also cut from the watercolor page in the center.

My second card has layered cardstock in green and yellow with the teacups cut in green and the inserts of the watercolor cut pieced into these cups.

The next card is a panel of the watercolor background with a circle of hearts cut in the center.

While making the previous card, the hearts and dots that cut out of the panel stayed in the die. So I applied glue to the back and added them to this card with a circle frame around them.

This card has the forest scene cut out of the watercolor background. I masked off the outer edge of the white panel and inked a sunrise background in the space with Memento dewdrop inks. I then added the white panel onto a blue cardbase.

And my final card is extremely simple. I die cut the children on the see-saw out of the watercolor paper and applied it to the front of a card as the only focal point. I love this card for its clean and simple look.

I did not add any sentiments to these cards as for the most part they can be used for any occasion and so I will apply the sentiment when I am ready to use the card. I will definitely be playing some more with this background technique.

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad paper
Reflections 110lb heavyweight cardstock for card base
Paper studio blue cardbase
Crayola watercolor paints
Dies from my stash
Memento dewdrop inks

Entered into the AAA Cards CAS Game #124 - Imagine
Entered into the QKR Stampede Challenge #314 - Anything Goes
Entered into the Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes Challenge #90
Entered into the 613 Avenue Create Anything Goes w/Optional Twist: Clean and Simple #213
Entered into the Artistic Inspirations Anything Goes Challenge #207

First try - Double Embossing

Now that my crafty friend has her Happy Mail, I can share this project. I enjoy watching various crafters on YouTube while I am hand sewing and partial and double embossing were techniques that immediately went on my "to try" list. I think it looks beautiful and elegant.Today was the day I got to try out double embossing.

To start my card I stamped a sunflower from Power Poppy's In Praise of Sunflowers stampset onto Canson Mi Tientes sand colored paper and colored it with my Prismacolor colored pencils. I cut the paper down to the width of the flower and then temporarily taped black cardstock to the edges to make a 4.25 inch wide panel. I then cut the bottom with a shaped edge die.

Then I moved on to the purpose of this exercise. I stamped my sentiment in the corner of a piece of white cardstock. I embossed the cardstock with the Darice Basketweave Background embossing folder using a chipboard shim to prevent the area around the sentiment from being embossed. I followed Nilda Rockenbach's instructions, modifying them to work with my project.

I then embossed with the tag die to create the frame and then assembled the card onto a side folding cardbase. I added three clear gems around the sunflower.

What I learned from this try: I would do the embossing first next time and then the stamping. I think it would be easier to line it all up better that way. Also, I would tape down my die on both sides and not just one as it seemed to have moved while running it through the machine and it is not quite straight anymore.

General supplies:

Sand colored Canson Mi Tientes paper

Reflections 110lb heavyweight cardstock for card base

Black and white cardstock

Power Poppy's In Praise of Sunflowers clear stampset

Stampabilities Everday Expressions stampset

Prismacolor pencils

Memento Tuxedo black ink

Darice Basketweave Background embossing folder

Stitched label die

Gems from stash

Entered into the Fabrika Fantasy Autumn Challenge #24
Entered into the QKR Stampede Challenge #312 - Anything Goes
Entered into the Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes Challenge #89
Entered into the Crafting from the Heart Anything Goes Challenge #219
Entered into the Stempelsonne Anything Goes Challenge #205
Entered into the Artistic Inspirations Anything Goes Challenge #206
Entered into the Creative Fusion Arts & Crafts "Sunflowers" Challenge #4

Bugaboo Stamps

It is time for another challenge over at Crafting with an Attitude and this is my Design Team project for the challenge. The sponsor this month is Bugaboo Stamps and since I love to color flowers, I chose to work with Flower Butterfly Corner.

I arranged the digi and my sentiment into a 4.25 x 5.5 inch notecard size space using MS Word on my computer. The font for the sentiment is Honey Script. I also love to use it to cut sentiments with my Silhouette machine. I printed it out on Stathmore Paint Pad paper and colored the image with my Prismacolor colored pencils.

I do love coloring flowers and so this beautiful digi was a pleasure to color. I colored the butterflies blue so that the were noticeable and did not blend into the flowers.

I did the background with soft pastels, creating a gradient of 4 colors from a light yellow, to a dark yellow to a light orange and then to a dark orange. I sprayed the complete panel with workable fixative before adhering it to a black cardbase.

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad paper
Paper studio black cardbase
Bugaboo Stamps Flower Butterfly Corner digital stamp
Prismacolor pencils

Entered into the QKR Stampede Challenge #311 - Anything Goes
Entered into the Kleuren met Potlooden Everything is Allowed August Challenge
Entered into the Cute N Crafty Anything Goes Challenge #8
Entered into the Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes Challenge #89
Entered into the Stempelsonne Anything Goes Challenge #205
Entered into the Alphabet Challenge Blog "L is for Leaves"
Entered into the Crafting from the Heart Anything Goes Challenge #218
Entered into the 613 Avenue Create Anything Goes w/Optional Twist: Clean and Simple #213
Entered into the Little Miss Muffet Challenge Anything Goes Challenge #197
Entered into the Daisy Chain Birthday Challenge #23

Mixed Media Mice

The current challenge at the House Mouse Challenge blog is themed "Use a charm". How fun is that?

I created my card using the Catchin' Some Shade image from the Very Mice Coloring Book. I colored the mice, their towels and the umbrella with my Prismacolor colored pencils. I then did the sand with soft pastels, blending two shades of peach together and then sprayed the panel with a workable fixative. 

Once it was dry, I masked off two clouds in the sky and inked the sky by blending Memento Inks. I love the texture one gets from blending the inks on paper with a tooth. I then added a bit of shadowing to the clouds with my pencils as well as coloring the shells and adding some extra depth to spots in the sand. The workable fixative allows for more coloring over the top of it.

Using a stamp from my stash of wood mounted retired Stampin Up stamps, I added the sentiment with Versafine Onyx Black ink and put clear embossing powder on it.

To completed the card, I added the colored panel to a white cardbase and then glued a pewter starfish charm to the sand. While this card is completely one layer (well expect for the charm) it is truly mixed media in that I used pencils, soft pastels and ink to complete it.

General supplies:

Strathmore Paint Pad paper

Catchin' Some Shade image from the Very Mice Coloring Book Vol 1

Reflections 110lb heavyweight cardstock for card base

Krylon Workable Fixative

Prismacolor pencils

Soft pastels

Memento inks

Retired Stampin Up stamp from my stash

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Clear Embossing powder

Pewter starfish charm

Entered into the HMFMC Anything Goes/Optional theme "Add a Charm" Challenge #273

Entered into the QKR Stampede Challenge #311 - Anything Goes

Entered into the Kleuren met Potlooden Everything is Allowed August Challenge

Entered into the Cute N Crafty Anything Goes Challenge #8

Entered into the Crafts Galore Encore Anything Goes Challenge #55