Watercolor Wednesday - Watercolor Backgrounds Using Distress Ink

A beautiful background doesn't need to take a long time to create but can add interest behind the focal point of your card. Below, I used distress ink with water to achieve a very basic background that's perfect for a beginning card maker.

To make this simple background:

1. Cut a piece of cardstock or watercolor paper to the size that will fit your card base leaving a border around the edge.  (My piece is cut to 3-1/2" x 4-1/2" to fit an A2 size card.)
2. Tape the cardstock or watercolor paper, using painter's tape, to a hard surface such as a hardboard panel which can be found here. This will to keep the cardstock or watercolor paper from bending or curving as it dries and will keep the paper flat.
3. Choose your distress ink color.  Using a blending tool, apply the ink to the paper starting at the outer edges and move toward the center in a circular pattern.
4. Now take a water spritzer, droplets of water from your hand or dip a paint brush in water and splatter the piece with the water.
5. Let the water work it's way into the paper and activate with the ink.
6. Take a roll of paper towel and roll it over your cardstock or watercolor piece and watch the magic happen right before your eyes.
7. Viola, you have a beautiful watercolor background for the creation of your card.

   

    

MFT Summer School - Balance: Line

Today I made a card for My Favorite Things Summer School, Master the Lesson Challenge.  This card is for Day #4, a lesson in Balance:  Line.  I've learned so much from each day and am having so much fun learning new ways to create beautiful cards.  I've also learned to use white on white which I always avoided in the past but it has become one of my favorites to pair together especially after going through these lessons.  I hope you enjoy my card and if you're into card making, check out MFT's blog here for the Summer School sessions.

    

Watercolor Wednesday - Watercolor 101 - The Ten Minute Card

Today I made a few cards with the most basic and simple watercolor technique.  If you are new to water coloring, this is a perfect card to make that will help you to understand how watercolor moves. It's the basic of the basics, so to speak.

Use watercolor paper for this technique.  I find it helpful to adhere the paper to my craft sheet using painter's tape.  (It removes easily and won't rip the paper when you are finished.  It also makes a nice border around your art piece but if you don't like the border, you can always cut it off with a paper cutter.) Liberally brush the paper with plain water before applying your watercolors.  This is a very important step which will allow the watercolors to move.

I used my Paper Layers tool to put an 1/8" border around the watercolor piece but as I look at it, I wish I had trimmed down the white border on the card first.

I adhered the finished panel to my card base and added a simple sentiment.  That's it!  Believe me, I wanted to add so much more but I left it alone - no sequins, flowers or ribbon - nothing - because that's what makes it a 10-minute card.

 

Framed Card Using Penny Black Stamps

This card was inspired by Elizabeth Allan, one of the designers for Penny Black stamps. (You can find the post for her card on their blog here.)  I love the way she framed the flowers with dimension and thought I'd give it a try with a frame I had in my stash.  I never put white on white but loved the way it looked, so I ventured out of my comfort zone and gave that a try too.  I love how it turned out.  The Enamor stamp set contains five sets of flowers and one butterfly stamp that gives you the ability to create so many different cards. These flowers are also perfect to add to an art journal page.

I used Spellbinders Scalloped Frame Edge (S5-011).  This die has been discontinued and no longer available.

Inspiration with Penny Black Stamps

Happy Thursday, everyone!  I have another card to share featuring Penny Black stamps.  This one is called Delicate Florals and it's one of my favorites.  The flowers on these stamps remind me of my childhood growing up in Wisconsin.  I grew up on the outskirts of town in what people called "the country" and the flowers in summer were beautiful, vibrant and cast a sweet aroma in the air.

I used distress markers and inks to color the images and create shading.  The sentiment is from a stamp set by Simon Says Stamp called "Sending Happy Thoughts".  You can find the stamps in the list below. Enjoy!

  

Watercolor Wednesday - New Release by Penny Black - Trumpet Song

It's no secret that I love Penny Black Stamps.  I find myself drawn to their floral designs and love to use watercolors to "paint" the image and then stamp it.  I never know how the image is going to transfer and sometimes it needs a little tweeking and sometimes it's beautiful just the way it stamped out.  This card was made with Penny Black's Trumpet Song Stamp.  It really is a beautiful stamp and so versatile because you can use all of the image or just parts of it for your projects.

• Cut a piece of watercolor paper to 4-1/2" x 6-1/2".
• Prepare watercolor paper by liberally spreading water over the top of the card.
• Make a watercolor by mixing any Tim Holtz Distress Ink color of your choice and put some of the ink on a craft sheet.  Add a few sprays of water.
• Using a paint brush, paint the ink on the paper moving the ink around the card to get the desired look. Dry completely.
• Use Distress Markers to "paint" the image by coloring the flowers, leaves, bird and stems in the colors of your choice.
• When you're finished "painting" the image give it a couple light spritz of water and stamp the image on your water colored paper.
• Add any depth to the image, if necessary.  (I added depth to the flowers and bird with some soft strokes of ink from the distress marker fine tip.
• To give the card more depth and movement, lightly stamp some background images around the image.

You can find a list of supplies I used to make this card below:

Festive Berries

Mustard Seed

Mowed Lawn    

Forest Moss

Mermaid Lagoon

Brushed Corduroy

    

Broken China