Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The Wonder of Watercolor

I recently found a really beautiful Cuttlebug embossing folder, called Poppy, by Anna Griffin.  It is a nice big 5 X 7, too.  It looks beautiful embossed on any color of cardstock, but when I saw the Moxie Fab World's current challenge, The Wonder of Watercolor, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.  I embossed it 4 times on  card size panels, and then chose 4 different colors of distress inks: tumbled glass mustard seedworn lipstick, and shaded lilac, and  pounced the pads lightly across the raised surface of the embossed areas.  Because the pads are square, you often see the marks left from the edges of the pads.  BUT when you spritz them with water fairly quickly after pouncing, everything smooths out, and pools into lighter and darker areas, and for the most part, the ink doesn't go down into the non-embossed areas.  When these panels were dry, I trimmed them in various ways and mounted them on card bases made of Tim Holtz Core'dinations Distress Collection colors to coordinate with the colors of the inks, (except for the lilac card) and embellished each one.  I think these make a nice card set, and I'm pleased with the way they turned out.


The tumbled glass one uses some flowers from Penny Black's Petal Party, also watercolored using my tumbled glass distress marker and a water brush.  The sentiment comes from Simon's Flower Friend, and I centered the flower with an MME enamel dot. 


This one I kept fairly simple, just lining it with it's coordinating solid cardstock.  The sentiment is from Technique Tuesday's Bring on the Sun, by Ali Edwards.  Love her fonts!


The worn lipstick one uses a stamp and die from Hero Arts Antique Flowers & Butterflies stamp and die set.  Again, I used my worn lipstick distress marker to color parts of the butterfly, then used a water brush to pull the color to the rest of the image.  My sentiment here is another Ali Edwards set, Simply You.


And finally, this shaded lilac version may be my favorite.....it is such a pretty shade.  Again, I used the Penny Black Petal Party flowers and watercolored them this time with my new Inktense watercolor pencils.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts Luscious Patterned Flowers set; also another lovely font.

Thanks for bearing with me for this long post!  

19 comments:

snappy scrappy said...

Beautiful cards!!

Lucille K said...

Ohhh Lin, what beautiful work you have done with these cards, just lovely :)

Virginia L. said...

Wow, Lin! These 4 cards are so beautiful! Thanks for sharing how you did it! The water color effect are perfect for this!

Barb said...

This is such a beautiful set, Lin! LOVE the pretty colors! The watercolor technique you used sounds like a fun one - will have to try it soon! Thanks for always being a wonderful inspiration! :)

Caryl @ cinnamon holiday workshop said...

Lin... these are so awesome!

LaVon Hall said...

Lin, This is such a fabulous set of cards. Each is more beautiful than the last. Love them all!

Dorothy C. said...

Absolutely gorgeous! Love the technique.

Savannah O'Gwynn said...

I'm going to have to get some of those distress markers-- GORGEOUS cards!!! LOVE the colors and the bold embossing!! FAB designs for each:)

Hope you are doing well, Lin!! Time just flies!!! Hope the weather is great up North;) Happy Spring! <3

Nonni said...

These are all lovely!

Jackie said...

Wow! Those are really beautiful! I never would have thought of using the Distress Inks that way, I have to try that soon.

rcwidow (Linda) said...

All gorgeous and inspiring Lin!

debby4000 said...

Oh WOW this are gorgeous.
luv
Debby

Dawn T said...

Just amazing Lin. It certainly is a gorgeous folder. And you have done some fabulous cards with your watercolouring.

stamplover2011 said...

Beautiful cards!

jintyoo7 said...

I have the EF too, Lin, and it is absolutely beautiful - full of detail but still very elegant!

LIVE what you have done with these fabulous cards - I must try using the DI - I usually stick to thicker inks for this technique, but the effect on your cards is stunning. THANK YOU, for the wonderful inspiration :)

Bonnie said...

These are all beautiful, Lin! What a beautiful embossing folder and a wonderful technique!

Cindy C. said...

Extremely beautiful series Lin!

Helen L said...

Lovely, lovely set!! I love the use of the folder in the different colors. They are all different, but make such a nice set!

Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking Editor said...

Hey Lin! Thanks for linking this up to the Wonder of Watercolor Challenge in the Moxie Fab World! I'm so glad you joined in on all the fun! :)