Watercolour Wednesday Catch You Later

 I love making backgrounds.  I usually make a few at a time especially if they take time to dry or might get a little messy. Well for today's watercolour inspiration that's  just what I did. The process isn't particularly messy but the drying time is essential.  I also wanted to create a watercolour background but be able to stamp the oh so cute chickadee's from the Catch You Later stamp set and colour them in. The line art images just call out to be coloured in!

So for the first part I set about creating the watercolour backgrounds . The materials I used were thick basic white cardstock panels, Stampin write markers ( these markers are water base) , a spritzer filled with water and cling film/ plastic wrap.

I cut myself a few mats of cardstock and chose pens that who's colours work well together. I suggest that you choose no more 3 or 4 different colours because you don't want to end up with mud!!! 

For the piece I show in the photo's below I chose 3 shades of pink.  A light called blusing bride,  a mid tone called flirty flamingo and a stronger shade called melon mambo.

I  placed a mat of cardstock down onto a piece of kitchen paper. Then I cut a piece of cling film that was quite a bit bigger than the mats and layed it over top of the mat of cardstock. 

Next I scribbled the markers onto the cling film.

Then you spritz with water... not too much not tooo little. Practice does make perfect so don't get disappointed if it doesn't work first time. 

Now the fun really begins! You do have to work quite quickly so make sure you have everything to hand. Place one of  your pile of card mats onto the wet ink and quickly turn it over with the cling film attatched. Smoosh and swish the inks but now the hard part wrap the cling film around and leave it to dry!!

Leaving the cling film on is what helps to create the cool effect of white or pale lines randomly splashed across the pieces.

 Now as I said before I didn't waste my time waiting for bits to dry ... I made more of course 😉

Once the mats were dry I moved onto the next step in the card process for the card I had in mind.

First I stamped using Stazon black ink using my stamp positioning tool, Stamparatus.  I used this because I wanted to ensure I had good coverage and solid lines. I used Stazon as its a fast drying solvent based ink. 

I then used a product called Dakin solution. This solution is a type of bleach. You will also need a fine paint brush not with natural bristles though! I also keep kitchen paper on hand and work in a ventilated space as although it's  not hideously smelly I don't want to take any chances.

Now let the magic happen. Gently paint the solution over the area's you want to remove the colour from. I work in small areas and dab often with the kitchen paper to remove excess solution. The paint appears to just disappear before your eyes!!

Some colours will take a couple of washes of the solution to make the colour vanish so be patient.

Now leave the piece to completely dry while you put the rest of the project together.

I kept it simple because I wanted the gorgeous background and fun chickadee's to shine. I chose to colour my chickadee's using alcohol markers. I also use pretty pattern paper  from a set called Sweet Talk. This paper is full of fun and cute designs in beautiful cheerful colours. 

I love stripes so had to use this piece to complement my chickadee's. In fact my whole colour palette was inspired by this piece of paper 😁.

Whilst most of the sentiments in the Catch You Later are a bit punny some are just lovely. I thought todays card would work well for a fun Valentine for a child from a parent or grandparent.