Watercolour Wednesday - Translucent Florals

 For my watercolour day, today I went the whole hog so to speak! I had a piece of Fluid 100 watercolour paper and soaked it using a water brush back and forth across the paper. Then using 2 different colours, I chose Berry Burst, Lemon Lolly and Pretty Peacock ink refills. I put a drop onto some acetate and picked a little up with a narrow brush and let it smoosh across the very wet paper. I did the outer 2 colours first and then the Lemon Lolly in the centre last. I loved watching the way the colours all merged together with the softened edges too. You can see the even the Pretty Peacock has different shades too. While that was drying, I took another piece of watercolour paper and washed that too with a large brush. I then used Balmy Blue to cover the whole piece. I love that there are dark parts and lighter parts offsetting the whole page. Once the first sheet was dry, I stamped the leaves and flowers across the colourful mat and squeezed as much in as possible.  It was then just a case of fussy cutting them all out. That was fun! I do love a bit of fussy cutting! I then placed several of the pieces over the blue mat to see how they looked. I am pleased with the end result. 

Watercolour Wednesday - Men's Cards - Beautiful Balloons

 Well!!! Did I get messy making this card today! I was very impressed how messy I was. Cary would be very proud of me I'm sure! I didn't know when I started this that I was going to use the Beautiful Balloons stamp set but I am so pleased that I did. I started by taking a piece of A4 white card and soaked it thoroughly in water. While it was still puddly, I dropped lots of ink all over the paper. I did have to re-add some at different stages. There was in fact so much liquid on the paper in the end, that I saved some in a little jam jar! Needless to say, I had to leave it to thoroughly dry before I could start to work with it and I had no idea if it would work but it did! 

I stamped several of the balloons in Versamark ink in several areas on the now coloured card. I poured Clear Embossing Powder over it and once I removed the excess powder, I heat set it. I love the way that the colours have popped with the clear powder. 

I embossed a piece of the coloured Holographic foil and embossed it using the Metal Plate dry embossing folder. I took a card base in Lemon Lime Twist, a white mat and then added the foil before I decorated the balloons over then added a sentiment. 

It was simple and messy...very. Fun...yes. But please don't tell Cary!

 

Here is my dry mat of colour with the Versamark stamped balloons on.

The paper while it was beginning to dry.

the puddle of colours, above and below

 

Here is the paper once it was dry and before I stamped on it.

Watercolour Wednesday - Happiness Abounds

The last few weeks here in England, we have had some very cold weather so I am now officially fed up with the cold so I made a very warm watercolour card. Using 5 re-inkers and a few baby wipes folded together and placed over the edge of a ruler, I added a few drops of reinker along the fold. I joined and overlapped the colours so that there were no gaps and then wiped the baby wipes and ink across the card mat. Then using the Happiness Abounds stamps and a Versamark ink pad, I stamped the 4 different flowers across the inked and dry mat.

Following that, I poured the white embossing powder all over and tipped the rest back into the pot. The mat was then heat set using my heat tool. I went on to die cut the large flower from the Artistic Dies out of plain white card and added a sentiment to finish the front. 

On the inside, I cut a mat slightly smaller than the usual size and added the cut offs from the front of the card all around the edge of the mat. A sentiment from the Happiness Abounds and a fussy cut flower from the Hues of Happiness DSP to complete it. 

I found this technique of water colouring on Jennifer McGuire Ink on her you tube channel. Please go and look as it's a brilliant technique. I have also added pictures of some of the other mats that I made.

Watercolour Wednesday - Santa's Delivery

Well, I have discovered that I cannot for the life of me, watercolour Santa and his train! I tried 4 times and eventually gave up! So back to the drawing board and I made a background. Using the Fluid 100 watercolour paper and 3 drops of the pale blue of Balmy Blue ink refil into a tablespoon of water, I mixed it up then washed it across the paper and let it dry. Then I added some Orchid Oasis ink refil, a soft purple and mixed that into the blue and washed that across the top portion of the card and let that dry. Once that was dry I then went on to use the Starry Sky ink refil. I repeated the same process with only a few drops of the refil but added it to the previously coloured water. That was also washed across the whole of the paper and again left to dry. 

I decided to add a sky full of snowflakes to the now dry mat. Using Versamark, I stamped the snowflake stamp from the Christmas Scottie stamp set all over the blue paper and poured some white embossing powder all over before I heat set it. Once done, I added the Santa's train over the top. As I had such a disaster with my colouring the train, I used the Blends pens to colour it all in. A sentiment at an angle and this card is completed.

Watercolour Wednesday - Heron Habitat

I really had fun making this card for today with the Heron Habitat stamp set and dies . I had a piece of Fluid 100 watercolour paper and using a tablespoon of water and a few drops of Balmy Blue ink refill. I washed the blue right across the whole piece of paper. I dried it with my heat gun and repeated the process again using a stronger mix of colour. I continued to do this again but this time using Pear Pizazz and quite a wide, dry brush. Just building up colour and adding drops of ink to the water, I eventually got a muddy sort of colour where the trees and the riverbank came from. I did add a little more colour by squishing my Crumb Cake ink pad and adding a little more colour. Ink refills are absolutely brilliant!

Now as a young girl and one of 5 children, I remember my big brother Trevor, drawing swans and riverbanks. He used to stick his tongue out around his lips while he was drawing! We still take the mickey out of him for doing it. :)) I was remembering him as I was painting the card, it still brings a smile and a chuckle to my face! He's so far away now as he lives in Canada with his family and sadly I haven't seen him for about 4 years. :(  One day...

I continued this time but this time I used the Heron dies and found it really quick too. I cut the legs from the lower heron to show that she's nesting. I hope she is anyway! I cut the paper down to 10cm by 14.4cm and mounted it onto an Old Olive card base.