What I learned this week at the craft table

My Thursday night Zoom meeting always brings out the completion of a challenge or two (or 4!), but this week I noticed that many challenges focus was on flowers.  Lucky me!  I just got the new Paint-A-Flower Anemone stamp set from Altenew and I wanted to try it out.

I stamped the big image on Bristol watercolor paper in black (purple)  and antique linen (blue) Ranger Distress Ink, then started with the watercolor.  This was my first learning moment!  The black Distress Ink bleeds when you watercolor it!  Sigh.  Ok, I'm moving on because its art and it all turned out fine in the end.  I used my new Karin Brushmarker Pro watercolor markers, and ya'll they are awesome!  This was my FIRST attempt to full-on watercolor and I ended up with a beautiful, striking bit of artwork that I am super proud of.  I tried several different coloring techniques between the two cards and the different layers and will keep working on it cause it was so much fun!

                   

I mounted the purple card on SU Whisper White cardstock and added some seed pearls.  The sentiment is from the Anemone set and was stamped with the black Distress Ink.  The blue card is mounted on layers of SU Cool Caribbean, Soft Sky and Daffodil Delight.  I flicked some aqua and Distress Ink on the background for texture.

I am entering the blue card into Global Design Project #423,  Paper Craft Crew Challenge #379, and  Hand Stamped Sentiments Challege # 340.

I also learned that there is a such thing as too much ink and too much water.  My new task list includes doing a marker color combo chart for the Karin markers so I can blend them with more confidence.  I also want to recreate these cards using SU Stampin Blends markers to see what the different properties of the alcohol ink will give to the overall look and feel of the card.  I am probably going to do an ink color chart for Karin vs. SU ink so I can combine the two as needed (I have reinkers and a full array of stamp pads I can use for watercoloring too) as well as for matching up Karin colors to my hundred+ colors of SU colored paper for paper layering.  The list is long, but I'll find the time!

My second card was made last week but I am finally posting today.  I used SU sparkle paste with several retired SU in-color reinkers (Wisteria Wonder, Baha Breeze, Hello Honey, Lucky Limeade and Raspberry Ripple) on the SU decorative mask to make my dots.  This was new to me so I went through a couple iterations before I was happy with the result.  The HAPPY in the center bled a lot so I decided to trace it on some Lucky Limeade card stock and fussy-cut.  I put a little gloss on top and added Birthday sentiment from an old (old) Paper Pumpkin.

I am entering this one into the Less is More #420, Addicted to CAS, and NBUS Challenge 15.

Thanks for visiting!