Watercolor Wonder

Watercolors can be my best friend or worst enemy, depending on the day! They are hard to control yet so forgiving. The Artist's Watercolor 101 for Papercrafters class by Emily Midgett at Altnew Academy is a great place to start! She gives so many tips and tricks, introduces all of the techniques and products. This card incoporates several of these techniques: usign embossing to guide your watercoloring, no line watercoloring, and ombre background painting. 

Ombre Background

            

Start by heat embossing the flowers in gold on watercolor paper. Now you're ready for the ombre effect from blue, to green, to yellow. Beginning with the blue, use a wet brush to pull the color down as you swipe the brush back and forth.  Then add some green and pull the color towards the blue so it will mix smoothly.  Finally, add the yellow and pull it towards the green as well as fading out towards the bottom corner.  I did add more blue to intensify the corner, and threw in a more aqua shade of blue as it faded out into the green. Yes, I painted right over my flowers to have a base of color. 

Color Layering

After drying the panel throughly, the flowers are painted with a wet-on-dry technique. Wet watercolor is applied to the dry paper. The paints are transparent, allowing the yellow base to show through the pink shades.  Some of the blooms have yellow on the tips to add a highlight. Notice how I painted one petal and then rotated to the opposite petal. This allows the first petal to dry so wet color does not leak into another wet area.  Finally the leaves were painted with the areas closer to the stem being darkest. This does take patience, allowing each layer to dry before adding another layer of the same color or another color. After painting the large focal point roses in the next step, I added another layer of a more orange shade to the flowers on this panel to distinguish the color from the pink roses. TIP: If your watercolor panel is warped after drying, run it through your diecut machine to flatten it out! 

No Line Watercolor

To give the appearance of no lines, stamp the image with a light gray ink. It is important to use a pigment ink so the ink does not bleed when watercolor is applied. This ink, Altnew Permanent Mist Gray, is very light. Above you see the first two stamped images. I stamped 4 times to get the shade I wanted, but I really could have stopped with 3 for less of a visible line. Using a stamp positioner allows stamping multiple times in the exact same spot. 

 

                                                   Layer 1                                   Layer 2 

Lay down color, rinse your brush, blot some water off, then use the wet brush to draw the color out towards the tip of the petal. Build color by drying between layers. TIP: Keeping the tip of the brush pointed away from you allows you to see your application better.

Mistakes Happen!

Sometimes light lines can make small areas hard to discern. I did accidentally paint an area I should have left lighter. To correct a mistake, use a very wet brush to saturate the color and wipe the color away with the brush. TIP: good quality watercolors can be removed, or at least lightened considerably, rather easily. 

Assembling the Card

When assembling your card, it might help to lay out the pieces and take a photo of several designs. Looking at the photo comparison often helps me decide placement of items, such as this sentiment. The larger rose is elevated with foam tape, but the smaller rose is not. Vellum behind the sentiment makes the words stand out without covering too much visual area of the painted flowers. I also used a gold frame and sequins to tie into the gold sentiment. 

Supplies: 

Altenew China Rose outline stamp, Blooming Thanks stamp, Regal Frame die, Warm & Cozy Sentiments die set, Misty Gray permanent ink, 36 pan watercolor set, round watercolor brushes, 140lb cold pressed watercolor paper

vellum, metallic gold paper (mfg unknown)

Challenge Submissions: 

Thank you for choosing my card for a top 3 award! 

 The Neglected Stuff

Use at least 1 old product: I've had this China Rose stamp set forever and had not used it! 

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge- Something New

My new item is the Altnew Blooming Thanks Stamp

https://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/

A Happy Rainbow Background

 

I've joined the Design Team for A Place To Start Challenge and Resource Blog! You can find the current challenge of Anything Goes with a twist of rainbows here. 

For this card, my rainbow twist is made with strips of cardstock in rainbow colors. It's easy to adhere the colored cardstock strip, then flip the panel over to cut off the excess. I used random colors from my bin of leftovers. 

The shadow layer for the sentiment was used to cut the rainbow layer, then popped up on a white panel with foam tape. 

The sentiment words were cut from black glitter cardstock and adhered to the white panel. 

I decided the to add some stamped floral images on the rainbow panel. This was tricky because I had already adhered the panel with foam tape to the white cardstock. Yikes! Do this step before popping the panel up! 

Iridescent sequins finish off the card. I hope it makes someone smile with the array of colors, glitter and shine! 

Supplies: 

Altenew Timeless Sentiements 2, Adore You Stamp Set

Gina K Designs Disco Ball sequins

Versafine Claire Nocturne ink

Variety of cardstocks (unknown)

Misti stamping tool 

Challenge submissions:

AUD Sentiments Challenge Blog - Anything goes plus a sentiment. 

https://audsentimentschallengeblog.blogspot.com.  

Path of Positivity Challenge- Anything with a positive message 

https://pathofpositivitychallenge.blogspot.com/ 

  The Neglected Stuff Challenge- Adore You Stamp set I've had for at                                                                least a year!

https://neglectedstuff.blogspot.com/

Winter Wishes

Ice skating is the perfect winter sport in my book. It doesn't involve high ski lifts or hours in the cold weather. I even took ice skating as an elective in college. Soon we will be watching the Olympic skaters perform! So let's get ready with a winter skating card. I was inspired by the Let it Snow theme # 632 at Cupcake Inspirations Challenge blog here. I'm excited to be joining their design team next month. 

The Ornate Frame is from Day 1 of the Gina K 12 Days of Christmas Box. I cut it from silver glitter paper and stacked it on two more white frames to give it a little more dimension. The skates and bow are Gina K Season of Joy set. 

Scuffing up the skates with some gray ink makes them more realistic. The blades really shine with sliver shimmer relief paste. 

The center panel is made with watercolor dropped on wet paper, then spritzed with water to help it spread. 

Mini Snowflakes made the perfect addition to the ornate frame. 

Supplies:

Gina K Designs Ornate Frame, Season of Joy stamp set, Mini Snowflakes embellishments, Stormy Sky & Powder Blue dye inks, Connect Glue

Altenew 36 watercolor pan set, Master's Touch mixed media paper 110 lb, Paper Studio silver glitter cardstock

 

 

A Festive Ornament

I haven't had the chance to watch all of the So Very Merry 2025 classes at Online Card Classes yet, but I wanted to try out this new Easy Repeat Background stamp by Kristina Werner at Concord & 9th. The first class taught by Jennifer McGuire inspired the alignment of this ornament on the matching background. 

After heat embossing the background stamp in gold on a watercolor paper panel, I also embossed the same image on maroon card stock in the exact same position (thanks to the Stamp Wheel 2.0). Then I watercolored in the image with the embossed lines holding the water inside the lines. 

Then I cut a circle for the ornament from the maroon and lined it up to match the painted background panel before adhering it with foam tape. 

I love this new Loopy Bow by Simon Says Stamp! It takes a little patience to assemble, but reverse tweezers save the day. 

To tie the sentiment strip to the ornament, I watercolored the edges of the strip with Grapevine to match the color. A T-square helps to line up a sentiment strip. 

To add a little more shine, I adhered flat gold sequins from the Simon Says Stamp Christmas Cheer mix. This is the first time I've used the flat sequins and they really are eye catching! 

Supplies: 

Easy Repeat Holly Background Stamp, Concord & 9th, So Very Merry 2025 

Sentiment from Holiday Assortment Stamps, Kristina Werner Concord & 9th (SVM 2024)

Watercolors 36 pan set, Altenew

Watercolor paper 140 lb cold pressed, Altenew

Gilded Embossing poweder, Brutus Monroe

Loopy Bow die, Simon Says Stamp

Christmas Cheer Sequin mix, Simon Says Stamp

Challenges:

A Place to Call Home, Anything Goes with Something New November Challenge

Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #631 Maroon and Gold

Winter Cardinal Scene

When is enough snow, enough? 

I created this card in a recent class taught by Altenew Certified Educator Liz Ortiz called Songs of Winter. Her bird was perched in a serene tree scene with a little snow, so peaceful. Snow just exudes a peaceful feeling to me, so I added more... and more! I went back to it after drying and sure enough, it needed more! Then some glitter to top it off. 

The background is a cloud stencil on watercolor paper using a gray blue shade of ink with a little gray on top . For the front wood texture I used an embossing folder and applied the brown inks with first with a blending brush, then direct to paper in a slightly darker shade.  The arch die from an Altenew Mini-Delight came in handy for the front window. The cardinal was stamped with an Altenew layering stamp, which was pretty easy to align and forgiving. 

I'm not exactly a big fan of folding. I always hesitate when I see the vast amount of measurements for where to cut and fold, but this project was actually fairly simple. I find it easier to watch and then try it myself. I love how Liz taught using an accordion fold to pop the sentiment out as well. 

To finish off the card, I added some pine branches and a generous amount of snow using the new Gina K Rise & Shine paste. At first I just dabbed some on but after it dried I decided to add more using a pallet knife. This tool allowed me to add some snow sitting on the window ledge and on top of the sentiment strip. I had some old chunky glitter lying around that I sprinkled on as well. 

                           

The  back of the card has a little pocket to slip a card in with a personal message. I made a gift card/money pocket card with a ribbon to pull it out easily. 

If you'd like to learn card making techniques, sign up for Altenew emails to have the offerings from Altenew Certified Educators sent to your inbox each month. You can also find these posted in the Altenew Fan Group on Facebook. Many are free or have a nominal fee. The classes I have attended are not recorded so they are not available later to access. To see more of Liz Ortiz's work and upcoming classes, check out her blog here

Supplies: 

Altenew Fresh Dye Inks (Misty Morning, Morning Frost, Hazelnut, Almond Butter, Ruby Red)

Altenew Winter Cardinal layering stamp & dies, Birthday Greetings stamp, Regal Frame die

Versafine Clair Nocturne pigment ink

Tim Holtz Sizzix embossing folder (wood grain)

Simon Says Stamp Pine Needle dies

Gina K Rise & Shine Paste (white), inks (brick red, red velvet)

Gick Prisma Glitter

 

Pastel (Im)Perfection

​Perfection is overrated! 

I created this card for a pastel color challenge (Altenew Challenge Live), but the perfection part is what I can't get behind! I know it's a play on words, but there are so many flaws in this card and I didn't redo it. Can you find them? 

When you watercolor, you really have to let go of control. The water leads colors in ways you don't expect at times and sometimes into areas you don't want it to go. I had to blot a few times with paper towels and work on an area again. What I rarely ever do is start over from scratch! There are areas of imperfection in the mug where the metallic watercolor layer went askew. A little of the color went outside the lines on the mug handle. Oh well! Your recipient probably won't notice and it is handmade after all. 

Imperfections can often be covered up with embellishments. Layering can be incorporated to cover a flaw. There isn't anything unsightly hiding behind the cupcake, but there could be. You'd never know! Sometimes I place other more eye catching pieces to distract the eye away from flaws. 

The one flaw on this card that draws my eye is the embossing of the sentiment. The bottom of the Y is a little bit darker because the powder didn't stick. I saw it and decided it wasn't important enough to start over or try to fix at that point. I was hungry and wanted to get it done, so I used a piece of vellum behind the sentiment to draw your attention. I'm also hoping the cupcake sprinkles draw your eye upward! 

I hope there are other crafters out there who embrace imperfections instead of starting over. If not, I think I'd have given up a long time ago! 

Challenge Entries:

Altenew Challenge Live video link

A Place to Start: Anything Goes and Something New (sprinkles)  here

Supplies: 

Altenew  Sweet Life dies, Cozy Mornings stamp set, Birthday Greetings stamp, antique silver embossing powder, 36 pan watercolor set, 140 lb cold pressed watercolor paper, crystal clear embossing powder, Fresh Dye Inks (buttercream, warm sunshine, hazelnut), pigment ink Mist Gray

Pretty Pink Posh Birthday Cake Mix sprinkles