Best Thoughts in Watercolor

Today I a have a couple of cards to show you that are made with the same stamp but using different colors.  I've had this new stamp sitting around for over a week and I've wanted to try some water coloring and finally had a chance to do it.  As I was looking through some blog challenges I noticed that the Friday Mashup is all about water coloring with a very open sketch.  Perfect for what I wanted to do.

I made these for my daughter's best friend and her mom.  They lost their grandma and mother so I wanted to make something special for each of them.

I know...I have a lot of pics so I hope you'll bear with me while I post a few of each.  I've enjoyed trying out water coloring ever since I saw a video by Heather Telford on Splitcoast back in November or December.  She makes amazingly beautiful cards and I've sat down and made a few here and there because I enjoy it so much and because I wanted to have my images colored in.  I figured I'd use my aqua painters and ink since Stampin' Up! got rid of their Blendabilities and I couldn't color things in with them anymore.  Oh...if you'd like to check out Heather's work click HERE.  This link will show you one of her videos, then you can scroll through the rest of her blog if you'd like. :)

I forgot to add that I actually started with this card because when I think of hydrangeas these are the colors I think of.  When I wanted to do other colors for the second card I looked for pics of orange and yellow hydrangeas and they are actually out there too!  I knew there were blue, purple, green and pink, but I didn't know they come in orange and yellow too.  Guess I learned something new today. :)  Both of these cards were pretty easy to make.  I just used sponges and sponge daubers to get the colors on my stamp, but used a marker for the leaves.  I spritzed the stamp a couple of times and stamped it onto my watercolor paper.  After that I used an aqua painter to fill in the colors of the flowers and leaves.  I did use my stamp-a-ma-jig to re-stamp the image because I didn't think it was defined enough anymore.  I actually just re-spritzed my stamp instead of re-inking the whole thing again.  To get the blue background on each of the cards I just made sure the watercolor paper was wet...not too wet, but not so little wetness on it that it would dry right away.  I started going around the flower, leaves and stem and let the wet watercolor paper pull the color out away from the flower (the flower is dry when I do this!).  If I want it darker I just go back in and repeat making sure my aqua painter isn't quite as wet (but the watercolor paper still is) and get some more ink from my ink pad (in the lid).  I did tape off each of these pieces before I painted them to give them the border you can see.  I used masking tape and carefully pulled it off when the ink was dry (yes, I use my heat gun if I get sick of waiting for it to dry! lol  I also run it through my Big Shot if the paper is warped.  I just put it under an embossing folder instead of inside it.  That straightens it out in a jiffy!). 

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Water Color Paper

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog