#1018 -Wishes For a Great Day

Hello and welcome! Time for a new challenge at Happy Little Stampers and we are starting with the Watercolor challenge. Its always an ‘Anything goes’ challenge, so you can join us with any project you’ve made as long as you’ve used water in some form to color it.

Here’s my inspiration for this month –

I wanted to make a distress ink smooshed background with some bright colors. I also wanted the ink to spread on the paper so instead of using watercolor paper, I used drawing paper, which is actually not for watercoloring. On this paper, the water, and hence the color, would get absorbed and spread. I thought this would also bring about better blending of colors. Happy to report that the paper did deliver to my hopes! 🙂

Once done and dried, I trimmed the piece and backed it with scrap cardstock to give it strength and mounted it on white card base. I then used My Favorite Things Pierced Fancy Flourish die and Pink & Main Wishes stamp and die for the embellishing and sentiment, backing each of the die cuts with die cuts using scrap cardstock to get a little bit of dimension. I used gold foil to cut from the wishes die and the same cardstock as the card base for the rest of the die cuts.

And that’s my card. Checkout more inspiration from the rest of the design team at the Happy Little Stampers challenge blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#1005 – A Night time Birthday Card

Hello and welcome! Time for another challenge at Seize the Birthday challenge and this time, the topping, chosen by me is ‘Use Your Favorite Technique‘. And if you’re not a toppings kinda person, you can just join our usual ‘Anything Goes‘ challenge! The choice is yours!

And here’s what I made –

This card actually went to my sister who had her birthday a few months ago. I am just publishing it for this challenge! 😀

Well, I did start with watercoloring – that’s my favorite technique, after all! I chose stamps from My Favorite Things Sky-High Friends, stamped them on watercolor paper and colored them using (I think) distress inks. I then fussy cut them. I used another watercolor paper for the background and used another set of watercolors for the background. I chose a few places I wanted to add the stars to and colored them in yellow. I would adhere the tiny stars over them later.

Thinking I wanted a special fold card, I went through Jennifer McGuire’s tutorials and chose this one in the end. I trimmed some cloud shapes for the inside using My Favorite Things Stitched Rolling Clouds Edges, using Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles to trim the sides.

For the sentiment, I used stamps from My Favorite Things Sky-High Friends and Well, Hello stamp sets, head embossing them in gold. I added a strip of thin gold washi tape on the sentiment strip’s ends before trimming them and adhering them on the card. To finish, I added some gold glitter on the stars using Deco Art Glamour Dust Ultra Fine Glitter Paint and a bit on the moon.

After I finished the basic card, I realized how silly I’d been. The critters were all sleeping – shouldn’t they be celebrating?? And then I had absolutely no space left to write a message – what was I thinking? I clearly wasn’t. I was so involved in coloring the critters and their vehicles carefully, that there was no space in left in my brain for thinking anything else. I owe my sister an apology. Sorry about that sis! 😦 I hope the watercoloring compensates it though! 😀

And that’s my card! Checkout more thought-through cards from my DT friends at the Seize the Birthday challenge blog – you’ll also get an extra inspiration from our Party Guest Lorraine A!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#1003 – You Always Believed in Me

Hello and welcome! Time for a new challenge at Happy Little Stampers Watercolor challenge! As always it is ‘Anything Goes’ challenge, and you can join as long as you feature watercolor in some form in your creation.

And here’s what I made for this month’s inspiration –

I stamped the images from Simon Says Stamp More Spring Flowers and Even More Spring Flowers on watercolor paper from Hndmd using VersaFine Onyx black ink and then colored it using Distress inks. I waited for the images to air dry in between layers and finally added a layer of splatters using brown ink. After letting it dry, I die cut the panel using a die from Winnie & Walter Essentials: Lana Cutaways and then stamped the sentiment from My Favorite Things Kind Thanks on it and foam mounted it on brown cardbase

And that’s my card! Do stop by the Happy Little Stampers Watercolor challenge blog to checkout more awesome inspirational creations from the DT!

And thank you so much for stopping by!

#996 – Distress Oxide Ink Smooched Background

Hello and welcome! Time for a new challenge at Happy Little Stampers Watercolor challenge. It’s always ‘Anything Goes‘ challenge!

Here’s what I made for this month –

The colorful splotchy background is my watercolor art work for this month! As I tend to do more floral watercolors, I thought of doing something different and went for backgrounds this time. This is, though, an old technique of using distress inks/distress oxide inks and ink smooching.

For making the background, I actually used normal cardstock. I then added layers of ink smooching, dipping the whole paper to grab the color the first time, and then selectively picking color on certain parts from then on. I used various shades of inks to make the background nice and colorful. In the end, I used Distress Micro Glaze to really bring out the colors and the layers. The Glaze really does make a difference!

Once done, I started die cutting for the front. I used My Favorite Things Elegant Rectangle for the frame and Mesmerizing Mandala for the focal, die cutting several pieces of the mandala to get stabilize the intricate die cut. I then foam mounted both the pieces on the background.

For the sentiment, I die cut Simon Says Stamp Painted Hugs from gold foil paper and a sentiment from Concord & 9th Lots to Say, which I stamped and trimmed. I added these two pieces on the card to complete the card.

Checkout what the rest of our incredible DT created at the Happy Little Stampers Watercolor challenge blog and join the fun with your own project with watercoloring.

Thank you for stopping by! 🙂

#994 – Spring Birds

PE: Honorable Mention at As You See It challenge!

Tic-Tac-Toe challenge winner!

Hello and welcome! This is another card I made in my free time, and this one is watercolored. Had a fun time creating this! 🙂

Sorry for the bad picture – bad lighting and camera I used for so long stopped working – and I had to adjust.

So anyway, I used My Favorite Things Spring Songbird, stamped it in Adirondack Ginger ink, which reacts to water. I used Gansai Tambi watercolors to color it, and added branches to make it look like the birds are on trees.

Finally, I trimmed the piece, then mounted it on a blue card base cut out to the size fit for mini slimline card. The sentiment I used on the piece is from Neat & Tangled Scandinavian Print stamp set.

I am joining these challenges with my card –

My Favorite Things Sketch challenge #585

As You See It challenge #270: Spring is in the Air

Tic Tac Toe challenge #153: I’ve chosen Bird – Coloring – Flowers

My Favorite Things Slimline March challenge: Spring Scenes

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂