Winter Watercolor

Ashley shows us some wonderful tips to creating our Winter Watercolor

cards, this week for PTI's Make It Monday. 

My card is slightly larger than an A2, because I wanted my Amaryllis to take center stage.

Watercolor paper makes the technique a breeze, blending and dragging one color

into the next. 

A closeup of the Amaryllis blooms and a few drops of Nuvo to highlight the stamens.

Not exactly a one layer, as was Ashley's example, and I didn't add any gesso.

Loved that dimensional addition of gesso, but did stamp the leaves onto

my background for a bit of dimension of my own.

Stamps and dies link directly to the PTI item. Happy Shopping!

Blooming Amaryllis Stamp Set

Papertrey Ink - Blooming Amaryllis Die

Words to Live By: Happiness Mini Stamp Set

HLS December Watercolor Challenge

Happy December 1st! 

And a big 'Happy Holidays' to everyone!

The countdown's on, and I'm here to offer inspiration for HLS

latest Watercolor Challenge.

Our optional twist this month is: Christmas!

HLS: Christmas Joy, has the sweetest freeform tree, which I used for a focal,

stamping it 3 times with Versamark and embossing with white.

Gave it a contemporary flair with pink and lime colors.

Did the same with the bg using the holly stamp from the same set.

Sentiment also from Christmas Joy.

PTI: Berry Wreath Tag Die.

Kuretake Watercolors

Play all month for a chance to win a $20. gc to the HLS store.

Happy Holidays, and Happy Stamping!

Silver White Winters

It's time to concentrate on my stash of Christmas cards, and I'm way behind!

How about you? 

HLS Watercolor Challenge has a new inspiration for the month of November,

Anything Goes with a twist TAG. Play along for a chance to win a 20. GC to 

shop on  the HLS website.

Here's my card, hopefully it will inspire you to play along.

Background stenciled with watered down inks (PTI) on watercolor paper, 

and PTI's snowflake stencil.

Then I die cut the tag PTI's Holiday Tag Along die, out, and also cut 4 more from

Winter Wisteria Cardstock.

Silver White Winters also from PTI, snowflakes watercolored and embossed

multiple times. 

If you have waterbased inks, they work fine as a watercolor medium, and 

blend beautifully!

Hope you'll play along this month, I'd love to see you create! 

Happy Crafting!

Happy Little Stampers September '17 Watercolor Challenge

Happy September to you! Oh yes, it's September all ready.

Kids in school, temperature cooling (Hopefully), and the colors change

from bright pastels to fiery hues! Love it!

And, to launch September HLS has a challenge for all the 

Watercolor fans, Anything Goes with an Optional Twist - Spritz

Here's some inspiration for you, stamping and watercoloring with your water based inks.

My sentiment is from Year of the Psalms April from PTI, stamped in Ranger's 

Archival Waterproof black ink. 

The berries are also PTI, a set called Beautiful Berries: Summer, which allows 

2 step stamping.

The inked images were spritzed with water before stamping on watercolor paper.

While still wet, the 2nd layer of defining stamps were added, bleeding just a bit,

not enough to blur the definition.

Some added color around the berries, and leaves, and then some Lindy's Stamp Gang

Starburst dropped onto the card, randomly.

Hope you play along this month. Remember winners receive a $25. gc to the HLS shop.

See you in the linep!

A Prayer for You

Welcome everyone to Summer and July's HLS Watercolor Challenge!

Is it hot where you are?

We finally broke 100's for 2 weeks! 

So not complaining about the 90's!

This month's challenge is an 'Anything Goes' with a twist... Blue!

Watery blue? How about seashells on the beach?

Looks 'cool' to me!

Here's how I did this layered watercolor.

The outside card is 4 x 5 1/4". The top is 3 1/2 x 4 3/4". 

I wet the watercolor paper completely and just dabbed on the colors randomly.

On the top card, I left the edges a bit white to stand out against 

the bottom card.

Don't mind my dirty work table. It cleans up at the end!

Added a bit of Mr. Huey's Color Mist, Shine and 

Shabby Pink Embossing Enamel (Stampendous), to simulate sand.

Stamps and dies: PapertreyInk

Simple Seashells, Inspired: Prayer

I used my tube watercolors this time. Truthfully, the translucence is 

unmatched!

Play along for a gift certificate to the HLS shop.

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge April 2017

It's time for a new challenge at HLS Watercolor Challenge.

And this month is to create a card with the optional twist:

RAINBOW!

It's 'Anything Goes' time, the sky's the limit!

Playing, once again with Ranger's Distress Oxide Inks, and 

loving them more and more.

They react with water, and become as intense as you want.

Here's my inspiration for you

And yes, I even watercoloured the bloom with inks,

something I was anxious to try!

Happy Little Stampers: Especially For You

Such a versatile stamp set! It has sentiments for so many occasions.

Play along for HLS gift certificate!

Looking forward to seeing how you use this month's challenge: Rainbow!

Happy Little Stampers March Watercolor Challenge

Welcome back for Happy Little Stampers March Watercolor Challenge!

March's Challenge is anything goes, with an optional twist - SMOOSH!

You don't need watercolor paper to smoosh, but I knew I wanted to 

do some further watercoloring on my daises (Especially For You).

Hope you play along this month.

You could win $15. to shop at HLS!

Silver Fox

Playing along with Cas Watercolour Challenge, 

a new card challenge for all of us who love to watercolor.

This is my 2nd card, this time using a technique 

Kay Miller showed us here:

Thanksgiving Inspirations

I embossed the fox from Kay's set: Stylized Autumn, 

in silver embossing powder,

directly onto watercolor paper.

Then masked him as I stamped the leaves around him,

rolling the ink in first one color then another.

I then dragged my wet brush all around the leaves.

The colors bleed out onto the paper, giving it a cool watercolor effect!

Then I stamped and did the technique onto flower and leaf die cuts 

from the same set.

I also added a bit of shading to the fox's eyes and ears.

Did I mention that this is the 1st challenge for this 

sister blog to Cas Mix Up Challenge? 

Now you know!

Play along here:

CAS Watercolour October Challenge and DT Call

PTI inks: Terracotta Tile, Orange Zest, Amethyst Allure, Plum Pudding,

Summer Sunrise

Canson watercolor cardstock

PTI Terracotta Tile Cardstock

Autumn watercolor

Sharing some fun news I just learned about.

There's a brand new card challenge, 'CasWatercolor', by

Loll Thompson and Bonnie Klass, from Cas Mix Up Challenge.

 I love to watercolor, and so glad it's such a hot and trendy technique 

to use on cards.

Watercolored and stamped die cut leaves from PTI's Leaf Prints.

I used Windsor Newton watercolors, from a tube, to get

the intense fiery colors on the leaves.

I stamped and watercolored a few leaves onto 3 1/2 x 4 1/2" watercolor card stock, using PTI's Simply Chartreuse & Olive Twist inks.

Flicked some Mr. Hueys white spray 

and Olive Twist over the stamped images.

Sentiment from PTI's Color Pop Autumn.

'Bountiful' white embossed, then inked with Liquitex Iridescent Bright Gold.

'Blessings': Olive Twist. (PTI)

Background card stock is a left over from a challenge.

1st stamped with PTI's Background Basics: Super Chevron,

then watercolored randomly and splattered with Harvest Gold ink.

Play along all during the month of October,

and this is a design team call until the 15th!

CAS Watercolour October Challenge and DT Call

Also adding my card to:
SSS Work It Wednesday, Red Orange Yellow and/or Brown

 Work it Wednesday September 2016

SaveSave

SAF 2016 Watercolor Like a Master

Watercolor Like a Master with Kay Miller!

Kay shares some of her best on her first PTI video,

showing wonderful watercolor techniques with our ink pads.

Her gorgeous card and video can be seen here:

SAF 2016: Watercolor Like a Master with Kay Miller

I used the PTI set, Happy Hydrangeas, looking for the colors in one of

 Kay's sample watercolors.

'Thanks' from Graceful Greetings.

Gotta run, 2 more projects!

MIM #165

Make It Monday at PapertreyInk features the inspirational Betsy Veldman

and Artsy Watercolor Backgrounds

So many June birthdays, thought I'd get a headstart and

use her talented suggestions and play along.

Never miss MIM, even if Nichole's site goes down for a bit!

Boy card using Grundge Me (haven't used that one for a while!)

The images seemed to beg to be 'smudged' and smeared with this technique.

All PTI products, except the enamel dots & watercolor paper.

Berry Sorbet, Hawaiian Shores and Limeaid Ice Inks (very Betsy-esque!)

Rock and roll technique with the sentiment

Make It Monday #165: Artsy Watercolor Backgrounds