watercolor christmas

Does it seem too early for Christmas cards? It is right around the corner!

I pulled out an old set - PEACEFUL BOUGHS. I stamped RANGER distress oxide inks on a craft mat in PINE NEEDLES, FRAYED BURLAP, WALNUT STAIN, ICED SPRUCE then spritzed with water. Inked stamps with the oxides and stamped on watercolor paper. The Season's GREETINGS sentiment was stamped with TARNISHED BRASS distress oxide spray (sprayed on mat and loaded the stamp). I love the subtle look of the evergreen boughs and pinecones, the soft edges are somewhat dreamy! The ribbon is SEA FOAM green. 

 

Well, it has been a few years since I have made a post. As life goes, sometimes the journey takes us in different directions. Now I have had a chance to play around with stamping and cardmaking again. This holiday season I have been playing around with Ranger Alcohol Ink techniques. This technique has made it's way into my Christmas cards.

For this card, I began with the Yupo paper as the paper medium for the alcohol inks. I like to spray the Yupo paper with the alcohol blending solution, and then apply very small dots of about 4 - 5  different colors of the alcohol ink. Then I apply a few more dots of the inks to the blending pad, spray again with the alcohol blending solution, and dab over the background repeatedly until I reach the desired effect. The beauty is that no two backgrounds are ever alike. For this card I used indigo, stonewashed, lettuce, sailboat blue and pitch black alcohol inks.

I incorporated the Peaceful Boughs, Perfectly Plaid, Pine Tree Punch, and Heirloom frames.