"Papertrey May Blog Hop Challenge"

Well, the challenge was to use the combination of Aqua Mist and Melonberry as colors for a card.  Couldn't believe I don't have any Aqua Mist ink but thought it would be fun just to see if I could do something only with these shades in cardstock  ---AND, I just happened to think of my PTI Sprinkles kit!  I was one of the lucky ones who was up at 3 a.m. and managed to get my order in!  The sprinkles  (also known as sequins) made what would have been a pretty boring card into a cute one.  The little birdie comes from the PTI Little Bitty Bird set of dies.

Make It Monday #165

This week's Make It Monday challenge was to create a watercolor look with stamps & ink.  

Wet Paint III, just released by PTI was a perfect sentiment.  

Stamps: PTI Wet Paint III, Garden Grace
Paper: PTI Hibiscus Burst

Watercolor class - less is more!

My first attempt at this was a mess because I didn't let the watercolor do its thing and it ended up muddy.  Having a sense of when to stop and using restraint are the lessons for me!

More Twinkling H2Os

Twinkling H2Os were so perfect for presents!  These paints are iridescent and behave exactly like watercolors but have this incredible glow.  If it weren't for this class, I never would have tried them! I know there will be tons of times in the future when I use these for my card making.  LOVE them!

Take A Deep Breath!

Take a deep breath and jump in!  Today's watercolor session encouraged us to do some things free hand.  Once I got going, the process just took over.  I love flowers so that this seemed to be a great way to do it.  Great fin working with all the shades of green.  And for me, just spraying the watercolor paper worked perfectly, especially when working on with the leaves & grass. 

The sentiment comes from MFT's Pure Innocence collection.  Perfect fit!

Twinkling H2O's!

Ever since the watercolor class started, I've been dying to try these jewel toned sparkly paints called "Twinkling H2Os".  They are simply GORGEOUS!  They come in little pots that you activate by spraying first with water.  I first stamped the "happy" with PTI's Sweet Blush and then began painting over the letters.  It's not perfect, but the overall effect is stunning.  These paints actually glow. I swiped on a sponge-tipped bottle of clear embossing ink around it and added the gold Perfect Pearls. 

Fun,fun,fun!

Sentiment: PTI Wet Paint

Stampendous clear embossing ink

Ranger Perfect Pearls - Gold

My own shaker card

Recently I ordered a kit for making shaker cards, but the vendor was so overwhelmed on the day of the release that their website crashed, etc.  My order finally did arrive because I was up at 3am and somehow got on before they crashed again!  --but my friend Barb probably won't even get hers for another week or two.  Half the fun is sending photos of our creations back & forth to each other.  So I'm not going to use my shaker kit till Barb's arrives. Meanwhile, I was inspired to make my own shaker card using double-sided mounting tape.  It worked out perfectly and will give me lots more options!

Paper: PTI Rasberry Fizz, Basic Grey Fresh Cut

Ribbon & sequins: Michael's

Watercolor Resist

Wanted to try out watercolor with embossing technique from Day 3 of the class.  The PTI Sweet Peas stamp worked perfectly for this!

One more...

One more watercolor card - it really works to use a stamped image in the color family you are going to be using for the watercolor.  I tried it yesterday and the results were so effective that I had to try it again.

Water coloring a stamped image

Today's class focused using watercolors with a previously stamped image.  After experimenting a bit, I found that rather than using black ink for the stamped image, I did a lot better if I used a color that was more in the family of color I was intending to use for the watercoloring.  Not so muddy!  In this case I stamped this Flourishes rose first with a shade of terracotta.  Stamped the Butterfly with blue ink first.  When I finished, I didn't like my results--  but once it dried I liked it! 

Haha!

Watercolor - Day 3

More watercolor effects with stamps.  I find that when approaching watercolors, it's a good idea to start with a larger piece of watercolor paper so that I can play with the process and then take the section that came out best for my card.  This time I was playing with 3 shades of distress inks on a PTI stamp.  There is NO GREEN ink used - only yellow, orange and aqua, which created the various shades of green.  What fun!

Gelatos & Water - GORGEOUS!

Day 3 of watercolor class included gelatos, which I've wanted to try.  I ADORE the brilliant colors!  It was really helpful to watch the video.  I did end up playing with this quite a bit, dipping a watercolor brush into the crevasses of my PTI "Mums The Word" stamp to add more definition here and there.  This was really fun to play with!!

Today's lesson was about creating a watercolor effect with stamps, ink, and a spray bottle.  The softness of the watercolor effect contrasts nicely with the sentiment and a piece of rasberry fizz paper that I used for an accent.  I found that the watercolor look shows up better on medium to darker shades of ink.  By the time you add water to pale pink, it almost disappears.

Watercolor backgrounds

Watercolor class is finally beginning.  I couldn't do too much as my daughter and one of my grand children have been here for a visit. Did manage to try a few things,  most successful was using Distress inks directly on acrylic blocks with a mini-mister.  gorgeous colors!