Hi Everyone,
My Christmas preparations have finally neared completion and I'm able to get in here and get some work done. Whew it's been fun tho getting packages out decorating and enjoying. In the middle of it all something very sad has happened. I found myself in need of some really tough cards to make. You know the ones....ones that no one ever wants to have to make but sadly ones we are in need of from time to time. So as I was laying in bed the other night thinking about recent happenings and knowing I needed to make something I got an email....! My upline is in Michigan and she's really good at posting regular emails of stamping inspiration and on that night she posted this great and simple watercolor technique. I was so inspired by it that I jumped out of bed and went right to work on her technique. I will add a link to her video below so you can view it. But basically it's a combination of stamping and watercoloring that makes it super easy to create beautiful watercolor looks without a lot of messy watercoloring. let me explain.
I will say first that I copied her card design I just used different sentiments than she did. So credit to Jackie for a great card design.
I used the Waterfront stamp set on shimmer white paper. Like she mentions the smoothness of the shimmer paper for watercoloring is a great look. I know I know you are supposed to use watercolor paper but it's so textured that well the shimmer white is slow to absorb the ink and water and you get better cleaner images with the stamping. Oh you are going to need ink pads of your choice and an Aqua Painter for this. So shimmer paper cut to 3.75 x 5 and I stamped my first image which was the ground image in soft suede ink. Now quickly before it has a chance to dry I ran a wet aqua painter brush over the image. It just smooths out the look of the image and gives it even more of a hand watercolored look. I let that soak in a second and then moved on to my next image. I stamped the mountains image in crumb cake ink and again quickly brushed over it with a wet aqua painter brush. I then did the water.....I used balmy blue ink remember...stamp then water brush it. Finally I stamped the trees image twice in shaded spruce ink and quickly brushed over it with the wet brush. While that was drying I stamped the sentiment in Tuxedo Black momento ink and then using the speckled image stamp in this same set I lightly stamped it over everything to just give it a little something. Now don't come in to heavy with this stamp....just lightly. You want to give it just a subtle touch of speckle. Then once all that was dry I layered it onto some soft suede cardstock cut to 4 x 5.25 and then onto a base of whisper white thick cardstock cut to 5.5 x 8.5 and scored and folded at 4.25. I used the Waterfront stamp set on two of the cards then ventured on my own and using the Hold On To Hope set I made the one with the cross on it. On that one I was free styling it some and just started playing with the ink and the aqua painter but it's really just the same technique only I was feeling creative by then LOL.
I love how they all came out and if you'd like to take a look at Jackie's video you can see it HERE.
I'll leave you now with the product list and a last look at all three cards. Now I just need to get them sent off. Man, it's such a tough thing to have to do. I really hurt for those that have to go through this, these are never fun to mail.
Thank You for stopping in. Have a great Holiday Season. I will be having a lot of fun new products available starting January. The new Occasions Catalog and Sale A Bration catalog go live! I'll have digital copies posted here on my blog but if you are a customer of mine be watching your mail box because you should be receiving your copies in the mail anytime now.....HAPPY STAMPING....CAROL