Virginia's View Challenge #4

Hi there!

I've been really enjoying my time off from work this week. We've had some beautiful weather so, needless to say, I have spent as much time as possible outside - love that!

Have you seen Virginia's newest challenge? She'd like us to create tags or scrapling and she also wants us to add a recycled or household item. 

I decided to make a tag and I knew I wanted to have flowers on it but I had to figure out which item or product I would use to create those flowers. I decided to use tin foil - don't ask me why because I don't know!

After crinkling up the pieces of tin foil and pressing them flat again, I covered them with a layer of Gesso. When that was dry, I added some Distress Paint and blended them with water. 

After the paint dried, I proceeded to cut out the flowers with my Cuttlebug. The die is from Simon Says Stamp's Whimsical Flowers set.

 

The die-cut flowers were very flimsy, so I layered each one on top of some cardstock scraps, which I had also cut out with the same die. Then I adhered them onto my tag, added some sequins and a bit of Crinkle Ribbon. I dyed the ribbon with the same distress Inks and water to match the colors of my flowers.

The texture is really cool looking! Here's a close-up:

 

I want to thank Virginia for always being so creative and inspiring!

Hope you're all having a good week! Thanks for stopping by! ♥

Watercoloring Techniques

Hi there!

I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post. I guess I've been a little too busy. But today I am in "total relax-mode." Taking time off from work will do that to ya!

So, this morning I grabbed some Distress Inks, stencils, water, paint brushes and stamps and got right down to playing - makes me so happy! :)

My first two cards use the same technique, which we learned in the online card class, Watercolor For Card Makers. You ink up your stencil, spritz it with water and press it onto your watercolor paper. The results are always so cool! Tim Holtz shared this technique the other day on his blog too. You can check out his tutorial here.

I used the Large Lotus Pattern Stencil by Hero Arts with Vintage Photo and Peacock Feathers Distress Inks. Love these colors together! I also stamped the Envelope Pattern in Antique Linen to add a soft texture to the flowers.

My next card uses the same technique but this time I used some brighter colors and the Dot Fade Stencil by Tim Holtz.

I love the bold look of the daises, stamped in black, against the fun background! They are from the Hello Sunshine Daisies clear set by Hero Arts and the sentiment is included in the set.

My last card uses the roses and leaves from a lovely set by Simon Says Stamp called, Best Mom Ever. It's an older set but I love it!

I had a ton of fun making this one! I love just playing with the water and inks! Have you seen Dawn's newest video? It's fabulous and she uses the same watercolor technique. Julie Ebersole also shares a wonderful video with the same technique here - LOVE her flowers! The key is to let the water do the work.

Okay, that's it for me today. I'm heading outside to get some much needed sun! We had a bunch of rain this weekend but today the sun is shining bright and I'm hoping it stays that way for my whole week off!

Thanks for the visit! Hope your week has started off well! ♥