Watercolour Wednesday Little Monkey

For today's watercolour inspiration I've created a simple gradient wash over a panel of watercolour paper.  I chose watercolour paper because it can take a lot more water than normal cardstock. I wanted to create a jungle insired background for the swinging monkey from the Little Monkey stamp set. 

I started by choosing my 3 colours. I wanted them to all be shades of green. I chose shaded spruce for my darkest tone, granny apple green for the mid tone and lemon lime twist for the top note.

I then wet the watercolour paper with water and added the inks to separate acrylic blocks. Next I added a drop of water to each block and made sure my waterpainter was damp. Starting at one end with the dark geen I washed the colour across and up about 1/4 of the way up the panel. I then cleaned my brush and added another band of colour using the mid tone. Clean the brush and finish the reat of the panel in the lightest colour. I like the paper and ink to be fairly wet so that the colours meld together but not so wet that they merge together entirely. 

I then dried the panel and splattered some of the dark green over the panel. I then trimed it down a little and mounted it onto a white panel. Adding it to the front of a card that already had a white mat on it using 3d foam.

I used one of the cut off strips to decorate the inside of the card.

I used my Stampin' Blends which are alcohol markers to colour the images for this card.  I love how easy it is to colour with them and how good-looking the images turn out.

I did fussy cut the images out but they weren't too difficult to cut out. A little 3d foam to pop them up on the panel and a fun sentiment and the card was finished.

Watercolour Wednesday Pansy Patch

 A simple one colour watercolour wash is the basis for today's card. I knew I wanted to create a card using a single colour ink and that it would be made using layers of colour. I also knew that I would be using the highlight stamps from the Pansy Patch set.

So I started with a piece of watercolour paper and wiped it all over with my anti static bag! Yup I decided to heat emboss my images directly onto the watercolour paper before I did the watercolour wash. Not only did I heat emboss the pansies I also heat embossed the sentiment directly onto the watercolour paper as well!

I then decided on what colour to use. I chose a shade of pink called polished pink.  It's a vibrant shade that's one of my favourites. 

Next I took my spritzer and spritzed the paper with plenty of water. I then added a few drops of reinker to the cover of my ink pad and added a few drops of water to it. Then I used my wide waterpainer mixed the ink and gently applied a very light wash all over the paper.

Next I took a paper towel and dabbed it dry. Now I added more colour to parts again dabbing it dry. I could have waited for it to dry naturally in-between applications but I'm  too impatience 😉. It also gave the background  some nice texture from the paper towel itself!

I then took the finest of the waterpainers and used much neater ink to add highlights to the pansies. 

I then adhered the panel onto a deep pink card base added a few iridescent pearls and the card was done.

I lovebhow this card came out.  It was so easy to make. The watercolour paper definitely adds to the feel as does the texture from the paper towel. 

All in all a fun card to make. I hope you like it too.

Watercolour Wednesday - Have a Hoot

 Oh Boy!!! Did I do a Cary or what this week!! I got myself sooo messy that even my grandchildren were shocked with me!! I did enjoy what I was doing though 😁😂

I love to do watercolour backgrounds but usually I take a little more care in how I apply the ink. Today though, I didn't! I used 3 re-inkers for my background and just added 3 drops of each to a large acrylic block. I then spritzed lots and lots of water over the block so the colours ran together. I didn't move them at all but then laid a piece of watercolour paper over the top for a few seconds. When I removed it I added another and another. It tool 3 times to completely use all of the ink up. I set them aside to dry and once they were I added some drops of white re-inker to the block and again spritzed it with water. The white ink is a thicker Craft ink and takes more movement to mmake it runny. I used a cocktail stick to move the colour and water around then I just tapped the previous sheets of watercolour paper over it. I only wanted some of the white over the card and therefore didn't push it too much. I was able to do it to the others and the last one was just so subtle and because it picked up a little of the previous colours from the papers it's turned out beautiful. 

While the papers dried again, I stamped and coloured the owls. I washed some Misty Moonlight ink around each of the owls to give a night time effect. I then die cut them using the frame die from the Peek A Hoot dies which match with the stamps. Then I trimmed little parts of the dies off as I wanted them to almost overhang the edge of the card. A little of the 1,1/2" metallic ribbon, some Wink Of Stella flicked over the background and it was finished. I hope it looks ok to you. I know my granddaughter Bella loved the galaxy effect it gave and so much so she now wants to do one this week too!

 

I hope you like it as much as Bella did. Please have a go. You don't have to get messy. I just got my fingers in the way!

Watercolour Wednesday - Joyful Holly

 Hello, today's card I have had immense fun making! For a change I thought I would broaden my experiences in watercolouring. I have looked at lots of videos online and discovered the watercolouring  technique using salt and dropping other colours onto the wet card! Surprisingly though, I stayed clean! 

 I started by taking a piece of watercolour card from Stampin' Up! and spritzed it with lots of water. I inked a large block with Pacific Point, a really lovely strong bright blue. I spritzed the block really well too and then added it onto the wet card. Sliding it across the card to cover the whole piece, I left it for a few seconds to absorb all of the ink really well. Once the block came off, I added some table salt to the card, literally spraying the salt all over it. While it was still wet, I dropped 2 drops of re-inker in Yellow, Pink and Green onto a block, (also called Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and Bermuda Bay). I added a few drops of water to each colour and just dropped each colour randomly over the mat using my watercolour brush. I then went and made a cup of tea while it dried a bit.

On my return, I stamped the Holly sprig onto a piece of white card using Memento Black ink pad and then stamped the leaves with the most gorgeous green called Granny Apple Green. I took another piece of watercolour card and repeated the wetting process and another block stamped Granny Apple Green all over it. After spritzing the card and the block with lots of water, I again sprinkled more salt over that piece too. More information on the stamp set used Joyful Holly, HERE

Tea now long gone, I helped the card pieces to dry a little bit more using the Heat gun. The holly was added onto the green mat and the Blue mat, I chopped up! I cut the piece into long, narrow, triangle shaped pieces and then mixed them up. I then started to glue them to a standard card mat which was 10.5cm by 14.85cm. As you can see, I left a little of the white mat showing below the coloured card to accentuate the shapes. Bruno Bertolucci calls it a scrappy card technique. 

 

I cut the blue coloured mat into 2 pieces and added half to each side of the card base. the Holly having been glued to the green mat was then fixed to the centre of the card on one side of the card only. 

2 little messages, some more holly stamped and fussy cut (yes, it has to be done) and then added one to each side of the card to complete. I know it's a very bright Christmas card but I quite like that it's really different and I know to whom I am going to send it too!