Good morning, y’all – it’s Thursday and that means it’s Happy Stamper Blog Hop Day! Whether you came from Shelagh’s blog or direct – I hope that you’ll make your way thru all the Blog Hoppin’ Ladies today!
We’re all working off a fun sketch this week – built for us by our wonderful Stampin’ Up! Uplines – Sandi MacIver and Amy Koenders. Sandi’s not joining us on the Blog Hop for a few weeks – she’s working thru some medical issues and needs to take some time to heal. Please be sending good positive thoughts her way, okay?
As I said, I started by making the background. I used a piece of my Canson 90lb Cold Pressed watercolor paper and started building my color. Instead of using the Aqua Painter like I’d seen, I thought it would be fun to do this using my Clear Wink of Stella. Yes – I’ll come up with almost any reason to use it! Here’s how to make this yourself.
I pressed the lid of my ink pads down onto the pad to transfer ink into the lid – that becomes the palette. Pick up some ink with the Wink brush – and use short, random strokes to lay the ink on the paper. You can see a distinct “sky” area, “sunset” area and “grassy” area. I started by just using Pink Pirouette, Pumpkin Pie and Crushed Curry in the center of my panel. I let that grouping extend up in to the sky as well as into the grass. To make the sky, I started adding Night Of Navy, increasing the amount as I went up the paper. The grass has Pear Pizzazz and Wild Wasabi.
There’s no hard and fast rule – keep adding color – short, random strokes! – until it looks about right!
Once my background was dry, I started stamping the In the Meadow images over the top of it. I did all the images in Smoky Slate Ink. First I stamped the mountains, then the deer, and the grasses. Finally, I added the trees “behind” the deer – stamping them twice without re-inking.
I used my Blender Pen and Basic Black Archival Ink to color the deer in – I was looking for a silhouette – like you were looking at them in front of a bright sunset. Once the paper was dry, I brushed them with the Clear Wink of Stella, just for a little glimmer.
After that, it was all downhill!
I used some more Basic Black Archival Ink to stamp the Birthday Blooms sentiment (Occasions catalog) over the deer.
I used SNAIL to mat both pieces onto Pink Pirouette card stock. The center horizontal piece is simply another piece of Pink Pirouette, with two pieces of Venetian Crochet Trim adhered with a little bit of Multi-Purpose Liquid Glue on the front, and some scotch tape on the back. Then I wrapped Blushing Bride Baker’s Twine three times around and secured it in the back. Yep – with scotch tape!
The final piece was to add a Botanical Garden Jewel with a Glue Dot as well as a QUADruple bow!! Yes, you read that right! FOUR lengths – two of the Blushing Bride Baker’s Twine and two of Silver Metallic Thread. It took me a few tries to make it work. I uttered some bad words. I threw it down a few times. It was pretty persnickety, indeed – but once I’d decided I was going to do it….I had to do it. I finally got it, and stuck it on with another Glue Dot.
I popped the completed panel over the base panel with Stampin’ Dimensionals. And set the card front aside.
For the inside, I stamped several of the In The Meadow flower images across the bottom of a piece of Whisper White card stock in Smoky Slate. For fun, I added some of the little insect images, too! Then I used my Stampin’ Write Markers to messily (kind of watercolor-y) color the flowers in Pink Pirouette and the insect wings in Soft Sky. And I shimmered up their little wings with more…say it with me!…Clear Wink of Stella!
I laid a piece of Pink Pirouette card stock across the bottom and adhered a single length of Venetian Crochet Trim over the top.
I SNAILd that completed liner onto a piece of Pink Pirouette card stock and then into my Smoky Slate card base. Then I SNAILd the card front on – and the card was done!
For the envelope, I gave the front of a Whisper White Medium Envelope some more In the Meadow flowers and insects….
…and a liner of Pink Pirouette Backgrounds DSP, using my Envelope Liner Framelit!
I hope that you’ve enjoyed this card – and that you’ll try making your own watercolor background!
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OMG this is cool. Great job on this creation of beauty!
Outstanding technique, the sunset is amazing paired with the stamp set. Perfection!
The watercolor background is great! I hope you many more watercolor backgrounds in the future!
Mary, Mary….OMG…this is awesome!!! Maybe you can do a video on the background. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it, and want to try it. Such a beautiful card! Amazing!!!!!
Such a work of art…well done. Love that background technique. Hugs from Shelagh.
The deer and the foliage is all DSP or stamped. The water coloring is all by your hand. Correct?