watercolor moments

A watercolor scene using the Mountain Air stamp set on watercolor paper. This is a simple and forgiving technique. Ink the mountains in Lost Lagoon and spritz before stamping three times in layers. Then inked the trees in Mossy Meadow and spritzed, stamping two or three times before reinking. Then inked the bottom trees in Mossy Meadow and stamped without spritzing. Sentiment not SU. 

For this watercolor effect, I inked crumpled saran wrap in Azure Afternoon and Mint Macaroon, spritzed with water then stamped randomly on paper. Then stamped Distress Oxide ink Peacock Feathers onto acetate, spritzed, then inked trees and stamped randomly. Added gilded leafing in various spots with glue. 

 

Bird Crazy and Gelli Plates

 More Gelli plate fun and the bird crazy stamps from Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous. I love, love, love these funny little birds. Their facial expressions are darling.

I used the Gelli plate, lightweight watercolor paper, acrylics, distress inks, stencils, brayer, sponges, distress paste and washi tape to create the backgrounds. I love the funky bold colors, great patterns and textures, and of course the crazy birds! The sentiments are from Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous Tiny Text set. 

SHINE LIKE THE STARS / light the way

BE YOUR BEAUTIFUL SELF / use your wings

DON'T FORGET TO FLY / choose to shine

the world needs who you were made to be / JUST ONE LIFE

Praying Gelli Plate Circles

Praying Gelli Plate Circles

I made three sympathy/praying for you cards last week. For all three cards I used the sentiment from SU set Flourishing Phrases. I love this sentiment because when one is going through a difficult time, or time of loss, it is so powerful to know that people are thinking of them and praying! For this one I used a gelli plate and stencil to create the background. I smooshed the distress oxide inks in picked raspberry, ripe persimmon, worn lipstick directly onto the gelli plate and then used a brayer to roll over them. I then placed the circle stencil on the gelli plate and sponged the hickory smoke distress oxide ink over the stencil, removed the stencil, and then pressed the paper down on the gelli plate. (I removed two images from the gelli plate, this may have been the second removal) For the flower from Stampers Anonymous Flower Garden, I diecut the flower, then used distress crayons to color the flower, and followed with stamping the image on top.

 

 

Sympathy Gelli Plate

Sympathy Gelli Plate 

I made three sympathy/praying for you cards last week. For all three cards I used the sentiment from SU set Flourishing Phrases. I love this sentiment because when one is going through a difficult time, or time of loss, it is so powerful to know that people are thinking of them and praying! For this one I used a gelli plate and stencil to create the background. I placed the stencil on the gelli plate and sponged the distress oxide ink over the stencil, removed the stencil, and then pressed the paper down on the gelli plate. For the flower from Stampers Anonymous Flower Garden, I diecut the flower, then used distress crayons to color the flower, and followed with stamping the image on top.

 

 

Praying Distress Oxides

I made three sympathy/praying for you cards last week. For all three cards I used the sentiment from SU set Flourishing Phrases. I love this sentiment because when one is going through a difficult time, or time of loss, it is so powerful to know that people are thinking of them and praying! For this one I used the distress oxide inks on watercolor paper, spritzing with water to bring out the effect. For the flower from Stampers Anonymous, I first used distress crayons to color the flower and then stamped the flower image on top.

 

Rabbit jumps over the moon

Rabbit jumps over the moon

This is my first time playing around with Lavinia stamps and I love them! I've also been trying different techniques with the Distress Oxide inks. 

Here are the steps for these Distress Oxide inks with a giant Moon background. 

I began with watercolor paper and swishes a circle of the squeezed lemonade , laying it on pretty thick.

Then I dabbed on salty ocean, lucky clover, and added some peacock feather over those color in a few different spots.

I heat set the ink and then spritzed with water and heat set again. 

Next I squished the shaded lilac ink directly onto an acrylic block and smooshed that over the moon, and over scattered areas on the rest of the card as well.

I followed the same technique, smashing the broken china and wild honey in different places. Heat set again, and spritzed with water. 

I used a circle template and a gold jelly pen to draw a line outlining the moon.

The beauty of the distress inks is if you don't like it, you can always add more ink, or more water.