Watercolour

Recently I bought myself my first Aqua Painters (page 156 of the catalogue) and I was really impressed with the job they make of water colouring.  I still have a long way to go with my water colouring skills, so I decided to have a bit of a play around last night with a technique I hadn’t used before – using SU! Pastels (chalks) and the Aqua Painters. I really liked the soft muted effect this technique gives to the colours.

You really need to have a paper that can withstand the water, otherwise the paper breaks down and goes ‘fluffy’ and you can’t blend your colours.  Stampin’ Up! sells water colour paper for $13.50 for a pack of 20 sheets – they’re not very big sheets (9.5 x 12.7cm) but I tend to be able to get 2 or 3 cards out of 1 sheet & the difference the paper makes to the end result is well worth the money in my opinion.

I made this card with a particular customer in mind (Hi Michelle!) – using the Echoes of Kindness set which is one of the Level 2 Hostess sets. You can earn this set for FREE by hosting a workshop and achieving a net workshop total of $600 or more.  It’s easier than you might think and FUN! Let me know if you’d like to book a workshop.

Materials

Stamps: Echoes of Kindness

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral, Ruby Red & Apricot Appeal

Ink: Stayz on Black (A must have for water colouring) & Cameo Coral for sponging

Other: Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon (L O  V I N G this stuff at the moment!), Watercolour paper and Ruby Red, Cameo Coral and Apricot Appeal SU! Pastels, sponges

It’s hard to see in this photo, but the stamped image is outlined in Apricot Appeal.  This gives the image more depth and makes a big difference despite the subtlety.

I love that this card could be used for any occasion.  Inside I’ve also put a piece of Very Vanilla (because the watercolour paper isn’t quite ‘white white’ and stamped off my main image in close to cocoa and stamped a partial image of the flowers in the bottom right hand corner.  This means because the card base is quite dark that the sender will have no problem writing on the card and it also adds a final finishing personal touch.

And just to show you the beauty of handmade cards, that no 2 are exactly alike, here’s a 2nd card I made while I had all the stuff out – I find it helps me to make at least 2 of each card if and when I can because then I don’t mind so much giving them away!!!

I can see a difference, but maybe that’s just me – certainly in real life it’s more noticeable!! The 2nd one has a better bow if nothing else I know how much everyone loves tying bows!!

Thanks for stopping by – don’t forget to leave me a comment if you want to