Monday, April 21, 2014

Happy Watercolored Birthday


Hi everyone.  Having some fun playing with watercolor paper.  Today I poured some drops and squiggles of re-inker in both Turquoise and Tangerine onto my craft sheet.  Misted some water and then placed my watercolor on top, letting it soak up all the beautiful color.  It's just a little different way of adding the ink to my paper.  I absolutely LOVE how this turned out.  The color combo is so pretty and I love the deep, saturated colors.  I thought it would be perfect with a black base, so switched up my usual white-on-white card base and front panel.  Perfect for a masculine birthday.

The black base is hard to photograph as it doesn't show the true, deep black it is in real life.  The dark black intensifies the turquoise and tangerine even more - I wish it photographed better for you to see.

I used the little leaves die-cut from Sizzix, just securing it at the base of the stem under the sentiment and also two leaves, and letting the rest of the leaves remain loose so the card has a bit of movement.  Originally I stamped the sentiment in black directly onto the the watercolored panel.  I lined up my Stamp-a-ma-jig so that I could stamp it twice as stamping on watercolor paper can be a bit tricky because of the texture.  For some reason I ended up with a shadow stamping on the second try and it was hard to read.  Not wanting to forgo using this pretty watercolor paper, I opted to stamp and emboss the sentiment onto a thin strip of black card stock to place over the mistake... I like it even better than my original idea. :)

I'm entering this into the CAS on Sunday challenge (#31 - birthday with die-cut) and this will also be my second entry for Addicted to Stamps & More #91 - Anything Goes.  I'm so going to add this to the current challenge at Less is More #168 - Makes me smile ... when I saw this challenge, I immediately thought I'd be making a cute and whimsical card to enter (and I may still do that), but this card makes me smile.  I love the artsy look of the ink splat background and the bright colors with the black to ground everything.

I have signed up for the next On-Line Card Class - Watercoloring, which begins on May 5th.  So looking forward to learning more tips and tricks for using this wonderful medium.

Quick note to my email subscribers.  For some reason Feedburner (the system that tracks and distributes the subscriptions) has had difficulties recently.  A few days back I noticed that approx. 200 of my subscriptions were deleted.  In talking to other crafters, they have had the same experience.  I apologize for any inconvenience and hope Feedburner fixes the problem soon.  xx

Edited to Add:  Just checking on Time Out Challenge (#3) and see that their current one is still open and it's about masculine birthdays ... so I'm entering!! :)







Stamps:  Bitty Birthday (SU!)
Paper:  Black, Watercolor
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango (SU!); Versamark
Accessories & Tools:  Big Shot, Little Leaves die (Sizzix), white embossing powder, water mister



Challenges:
CAS on Sunday #31
ATS&M #91
Less is More #168
Time Out #3



39 comments:

Kim M said...

This is outstanding! Absolutely gorgeous! I think the black works wonderfully. I love it! :-)

Stamps and Paper said...

Wow what a background Loll ...it really stands out against your dark card fabulous CAS card

Anne

thassos456 said...

Beautiful card, love it :)

Craft-E-Place said...

Brilliant, beautiful, stunning card. The colours are so rich and vibrant. Love it!
Elaine

Lesley said...

Very cool!

mariasangel said...

this is gorgeous! really like the layered black panel idea too! am going to have to make some of these!

nancy littrell said...

OMG Loll....a True work of Art for sure! Wouldn't this be perfect for artistic DS Jer's birthday whenever that may be ? I LOVE the black against your rich colors in your amazing watercolor piece. I agree...I love the sentiment in white on black CS too. TFS my friend.

Lee-Anne said...

Love how the black really plays up these gorgeous colors, Loll! Beautiful card!

TwinkleToes2day said...

Beautiful. Really outstanding colour combo :o)

Anita in France said...

Oh my, Loll, this is so amazing ... the colours kind of glow against the black background ... stunning! Anita :)

Canonbury creations said...

Wow! Loll the colours are amazing especially against the black card:)
Val x

Unknown said...

Wowzer Loll, this is stunning. Love those rich colours shown off beautifully by the black base.

Karen x

Jess said...

Very Beautiful Looking forward to seeing what you come up with in class...

Colorado Crafter said...

Love this one!! I always love bright colors with black.

I've heard about many problems with Feedburner. Maybe it's changed if they've had a lot of complaints, but after I had trouble receiving my subscription to another blog a few months back and did some research, I read that Google was no longer keeping it in good working order. The blogger whose posts I had stopped receiving did a lot of research and tried many different things with no luck at getting my posts delivered. Finally just a little while back she found something else to try and it worked so I have been getting her posts again. Thank goodness my subscription to your blog must have survived since I received this post today. :) :) :)

Chriss Blagrave said...

Absolutely striking! Love the dramatic rich colours and I love your "mistake". ;)

Brenda said...

OMGosh Loll, this card is stunning! I love those vivid colors in your watercolor. Love how you did this technique too! But it was pure genius to put it on black on black!! I love how the black makes the vivid colors pop and I'm sure it look even better in person. You fixed your mistake so well that one would have never know that you had made one! I am really loving the sentiment on the black strip embossed. Love the leaves, give a touch a masculinity. What a fabulous masculine card! Hugs

Anonymous said...

Awesome colors! Great card

Susan Joyce said...

Love your awesome card Loll, it has real WOW factor.

sandie said...

Wow what a cool background Loll, the colouring is amazing, I just love it. Thanks for joining us at ATSM and TIME OUT x

Nonni said...

WOW Loll, this looks amazing. Choosing the black base was a great idea, this card has such an artsy, dramatic look! Thanks for joining us at TIME OUT. :)

Viv said...

This is simply stunning Loll. (I have Case'd one of your cards although mine ain't anywhere near as good but at least I tried!! )
This may be another I will be inspired by - love the drama created by the black background and the bold colour combo. Awesome.

Anne said...

Loll this is so stylish and stunning!
Thank you for joining us at Less is More.
Anne
LIM Designer

Brawny x said...

Wow what amazing brave colours. Fab card love Lea x

Cindy C. said...

Amazing colours, I could imagine how stunning it is in real life! Thanks for visiting my blog!

MaryH said...

Caught my breath when I saw this amazing card as it is simply stunning with these vibrant colors against the black. This is one versatile die & in your hands...superb! TFS this wonderful work. I understand about Life's complications & blogging. You do what must be done, and visit when you can. I signed up for the w/color class too. My w/c skills leave a lot to be desired. I think it will be fun. Lots of hugs. Take care. (loved the way you fixed your 'mistake'!)

Gerrina said...

Stunning background! Great layout with the black... Thanks for taking the Time Out to join us, Gerrina

Chrissie said...

I can see why you smile at this one Loll, I do too!
Thanks so much
Chrissie
"Less is More"

Deepti said...

This is gorgeous !! I love the amazing inking u did :)

shirley-bee said...

This is stunning, Loll! Those colours are fabulous.

Bonnie said...

These are AWESOME colors! Love how the black shows them off!

Danielle Vincent said...

I absolutely LOVE this too Loll! It is absolutely stunning. Great color choices. Thanks for joining us at ATS&M.

Donna Nuce said...

Very dramatic card Loll! I look forward to seeing more of your work from the watercolor class! Have a great day.

Monika Reeck said...

wooowwww this is amazing I totally loooveee that background you made another magic...Love the black on the background...this could be masculine or a feminin card...totally funtastic...love this Loll...I just walking around your blog and see pretties cards I ever seen on a blog...you are really talented lady...two thumbs up

Barb Ghig said...

Absolutely gorgeous water coloring on your background, Loll! I love that you chose black for your stems and background, too...it's so striking!

Dotty Jo said...

Stunning, Jo x

jjwoolz said...

Hi Loll, I just saw this card and fell in love! I sat here this morning playing in my re-inkers to try to get that saturated look. I finally gave up on distress inks because they came out looking grainy so I tried a couple of my Stampin'Up re-inkers and had much better luck. I even used some Perfect Pearls Mist to see how that would react and it's really pretty. However, I was wondering if when you used your water mister, did you spray the paper or the ink? Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful cards.

Loll said...

I used Stampin' Up! reinkers for this and it works well. I place some on my craft mat (nothing sticks to this) and mist the ink with water and then drop my watercolor paper over top. A friend used a plastic box (from one of her SU! stamp sets) as she didn't have a craft mat and it worked really well for her. For more bolder colors, use lots of ink and a little water ... it's all experimenting, but it's best if it's not a lot of liquid, then it just runs on your paper. If you pull up your watercolor paper and it's not all covered with color, place it on top of the left over ink and repeat until you get the coverage you want. Have fun!! :)

Janneke said...

What a beautiful card ;)
Thank you for joining us at CAS on Sunday!

Melinda C said...

Gorgeous!