Watercolor Week Wrap Up- Day 6 and 7

I hope you're enjoying all the watercolor ideas over the past week. Today is the last day and I will share Day 6 and 7 cards. Here are the links in case you missed any posts this week...
DAY ONE
DAY TWO
DAY THREE
DAY FOUR
DAY FIVE

The first card is one of my favorite cards I've ever made. I just love the colors and how the die-cuts flowers pop against the white card base...

I layered two very bright and bold Peerless Watercolors on top of each other onto an embossed piece of watercolor cardstock, drying in between each layer. I cut some flowers out of THIS die, added THIS sentiment and some black thread onto an embossed white card base. A closer look...

HERE'S A TIP: Make good use out of the hard work you did. There wasn't much watercolor paper left from this project but I used my heart border punch to punch out several hearts from the negative space for a future card. You can also use the entire negative piece on another card and layer some patterned paper behind it...

Now it's time to share the last card of the Watercolor Week Series. This is a card I created for my hubby for Father's Day...

This card was inspired by Tim Holtz in Watercolor Class. He taught us how to stamp with a stencil using Watercolors created with Distress Inks. I didn't have lots of water on my stencil so it gave a dry look, which I like for the masculine feel of this card. A closer look...

The sentiment stamp set I used is birthday themed but I think this greeting would work for any occasion, even Father's Day. I finished off the card with a wood heart and some twine. 

Thanks so much for joining me this week. I hope you had as much fun as I did. Have a great rest of your weekend! 

Watercolor Week- Day 5

Thanks for joining me. Today is Day Five of Watercolor Week. Here are the links to the other four days in case you missed it...

DAY ONE

DAY TWO

DAY THREE

DAY FOUR 

Today's card features a super fun technique that I learned from Jennifer Rzasa in Watercolor Class. You add salt to the watercolor while its still wet and it moves the color around and gives great results. I tried it for the background of this card...

I used some Light Green Peerless Watercolor and water and added it to my cardstock to create a background. Then I sprinkled on some table salt in different areas and let it air dry. Once dry, I rubbed the salt off with my fingers. It does all the work for you and I LOVE the results. You can also see where I put the salt. It gives it an "oxidized" look with tiny, brown specs...

I wanted to keep the card simple and keep the focus on that amazing background so I die-cut a Papertrey Ink Speech Bubble die in the matching watercolor cardstock several times and glued them together, creating an inlaid, raised embellishment. I stamped the sentiment on top with THIS stamp set as well as those stars. I mounted the piece onto a black card base.

Now because I cut the speech bubble from the watercolor piece, I had an awesome little die that I just had to use on a card so I thought I would share a bonus card with you...

I did the same raised embellishment as the other card by cutting out several more of that speech bubble image and adhering them together. I decided to place the stars in the same spot as the first card but use silver embossing powder...

Here's a great tip I've learned-EMBRACE THE IMPERFECTION! When I heat embossed my first star, The embossing powder showed up in areas that I did not intend it to. So instead of ditching the card and starting over, I embraced the imperfection. I decided to add more Versamark with a pen and create a messy, faux spray mist look. I like how it turned out! 

Okay, I'll be back tomorrow with yet another watercolor card. Thanks for stopping by! 

Watercolor Week- Day 4

Welcome to Day Four of Watercolor Week here on my blog. If your new to my blog, you can find the previous three days here:

DAY ONE

DAY TWO

DAY THREE

Today's card features Peerless Watercolors. I'm really loving the results they give...

Today's card was inspired by a card Laura Sterckx did for class. I used my bone folder and the crease in my paper trimmer to emboss lines in my cardstock. I used the debossed side. Not only does it give the background great texture, but also creates tunnels that the color spread out from. It's hard to explain, but so beautiful in real life.

Also, I wanted an ombre effect. So I added a very small amount of water towards the left side of the card and then gradually added more water towards the right side. More water equals lighter color. Less water equals more intense color.

I wanted a pop of color to be on the inside of the card instead of just white, so I turned the card inside out...

I finished off the card by heat embossing THIS lovely greeting in white and adding some enamel dots and a button.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be back tomorrow...

Watercolor Week- Day Three

Hello! Welcome back to Watercolor Week. We are on Day Three, but if you missed Day One, you can find it HERE. Day Two can be found HERE. Okay, let's get right to today's card...

This card was quick and easy, just the way I like. I bought some Peerless Watercolors recently and I've been eager to try them out. So I picked the color Sky Blue and did a wash over the front of my Distress Watercolor Cardstock. I let it dry and did another wash on top to get more of an intense color. That's it. I told you it was quick and easy. :) 

I absolutely love the "creaminess" of the watercolor once it dries. Just gorgeous....

I decided to heat emboss my new favorite sentiment after the watercolor was dry. You could do this before using watercolor but I always get better results after. A good tip is to use an embossing powder tool before embossing because the powder will want to stick to the watercolor. To wrap up the card, I added a few Lawn Fawn and Neat and Tangled Sequins after I mounted it on some Lawn Fawn patterned paper and a Hero Arts Card.

Make sure you stop by tomorrow for Day 4! See ya soon...

Watercolor Week- Day 2

Hello and welcome back to Watercolor Week! If you missed Day One, you can find it HERE. Here is today's card...

I used Distress Inks again to create this watercolor background. I used Squeezed Lemonade and Barn Door inks together to create this yummy peach color. After the piece was dry, I went in with some Barn Door distress ink with a blending tool and a stencil to add a small section of pattern. 

I raised the heart image I cut from the background by layering many pieces of yellow cardstock that I cut from the same Hero Arts heart die. I traced around the heart image with a white gel pen to give it some definition.

I also found a fun technique by accident! I heat embossed the sentiment with clear embossing powder thinking I grabbed white embossing powder. You couldn't see it well and I thought I ruined the card. Then I heat embossed the sentiment again right on top of the clear embossed sentiment but this time using white embossing powder. I positioned the sentiment off slightly from the one beneath. It's hard to tell in the photo but it gives a great shadow. A happy accident!

To finish off the card I adhered it to a grey card base and added a strip of yellow cardstock along with some awesome sequins. Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back tomorrow with another share...

Watercolor Week- Day One

Hello. I've been posting many cards using watercolor lately because I took the Watercolor for Card Makers Class from Online Card Classes. I'm still going through some of the lessons and have many cards piling up so I thought it would be fun to do a watercolor week on my blog. So every day this week you will find a new card featuring watercolor techniques.

For today's card, I was inspired to stamp with watercolor. I also wanted to challenge myself and make a masculine card, so I went with a blue, orange, and yellow color scheme...

To create my pattern, I started with a chevron stamp from Studio Calico and inked it with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and then spritzed it with water before stamping on watercolor cardstock. I repeated this step with Squeezed Lemonade and Peacock Feathers Distress Ink. I love the "messy", watercolor look it creates...

To finish off the card, I stamped the happy birthday sentiment from Studio Calico in black ink and then mounted it on a black card base. Super simple.

I hope I've inspired you to create some Watercolor Stamping. Have a great Monday and see you tomorrow!

Acetate Challenge...

I am so glad that I decided to create an acetate challenge over on the Little Tangles Blog. I love the fun and unexpected look of acetate, but it sometimes can be tricky to work with. However, when creating this project, I stumbled upon a great tip that may work for some of you that are intimated by acetate (like me).

Here is my card for the challenge...

I decided to use acetate as my card base. My favorite acetate cards are THESE from Hero. They are high quality and are easy to work with. I stamped my new favorite greeting on the front of the acetate card using white Staz-On ink. Well, I must have had that ink pad for quite some time because the ink was kind of dull. So I restamped it. It looked okay but you still couldn't see it well. 

Here's the tip...If you're looking for that bright white look on acetate, use the staz-on as something for a White Gel Pen to grip to. I simply traced the image with my white pen and the only way for it to not smear on the acetate is to have the staz-on ink as a base. This would work for black as well. Here's a closer look (You can see the Staz-On ink. It almost serves as a shadow, a cool effect) 

To finish the card, I created a watercolor panel to go behind (on the inside of the card). I punched a 3x4 rectangle with THIS punch out of THIS paper and used Wild Honey, Peacock Feathers, and Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks with water. I flicked some pearlized water on top to give spots of shine. Adhering this is the tricky part because of the clear card. I used glossy accents in tiny dots behind the words of the sentiment. It took some time but you don't see any adhesive that way.

I also added some black and white twine to the side of the card to appear as it is floating. I really like how it turned out! I hope you can enter your acetate card HERE for a chance to win a Neat and Tangled Stamp Set of your choice.

Thanks for stopping by!