Watercolor for Card Makers: Day 4

I’m continuing to slowly work my way through the class techniques from Watercolor for Card Makers. I know I’m slow, and I’m taking a lot of time to work through them all. I hope you don’t mind. In order to get the most out of a class I feel like I need to actually put into practice what I’ve learned or I will forget it all.

On day four of class we learned the three techniques I’m sharing with you today.

For this first card, the instructor applied inks to an acrylic block and used that as her “stamp pad” by then inking up a background stamp. I don’t own very many background stamps at this point, so instead I pulled out a Studio Calico mask. By pressing the mask into the ink I was able to use it much like I would have used a stamp. When you don’t have the supplies you need, you improvise. And sometimes you find new ways to use the supplies you have.

The end result is a messy, artsy look, which I love.

 

I added some stitching, a sentiment banner, and a few sequins. The colored paper behind the main image was made by dipping an extra piece of watercolor paper into the extra ink on my acrylic block. Don’t waste that ink! use it to make a fun background to use with your project, or for a brand new project!

The next technique uses gelatos. Gelatos are such a fun medium. I probably don’t use them as much as I should, but they are a really fun way to incorporate a watercolor look to your stamped images.

I used an old stamp from Stampin’ up! for this one, which is probably no longer available. But it was the perfect size and style for this technique. I scribbled the gelatos onto the stamp, wetted it, and then smudged the colors together a little with my finger before stamping it onto watercolor card stock. I used a blending stub to blend it together a little bit more after it was stamped. It leaves behind a soft image, which I think is so pretty!

Add a simple stamped sentiment and a tiny bit of stitching and you have a simple, but elegant, card.

This last technique wasn’t my favorite, and the card I created is a bit out of my normal style. I don’t often create cute and graphic cards, but this time I did. It didn’t feel like “me”, but it’s fun to explore different styles every once in a while.

We used a pencil eraser dipped in watered down ink to create these “bokeh dots”. I thought it would be fun to play around with different sizes of pencil eraser, but alas, I only had one size. Wouldn’t it be fun to create a dotted background using different size dots? Kind of like this? Cute, right? But, since I only had one size, I chose to use different colors instead, just like the instructor showed us.

I love this elite enamel hearts! Cuteness! And they just happened to match my inks so perfectly! The sentiment is from Paper Smooches. I die cut the heart using a die from Papertrey Ink.

That’s all for today, folks! I’d love to hear what you think of today’s techniques. If you have any questions about any supplies I used, please don’t be afraid to ask!

Have a good one!