Wednesday 16 August 2017

CAS Watercolour Mid Month Reminder for August Salty backgrounds

It's time again for CAS Watercolour mid month reminder to use salt in your watercolour.  One thing I realised about salt backgrounds is that they make awesome Christmas backgrounds when blue or silver water colour is used.  They look really cold and crystally (not a real word but describes it perfectly),
For this card I use blue watercolour on watercolour paper.  I taped the watercolour paper down to prevent it warping and used a large brush to add water to the card then added the colour.  Once I had enough colour one I sprinkled regular table salt over it.  I left it overnight for it to dry completely.  After it dried I scraped off the salt with a plastic card.
I used the Stamplorations Let it snow die cut twice, once in salted watercolour card and once in black foam to pop it up and give a little shadow behind. The Simon Says Stamp Payton ornament die was cut in the salted watercolour card and backed with silver.





Card Recipe
Stamps: None
Paper: 110lb white, 140lb watercolour
Ink: None
Accessories: Watercolour, Stamplorations die, Simon Says Stamp die, Black foam
Techniques: Salted Watercolour

Friday 11 August 2017

Alcohol inks and blending solution

I've been playing with some Alcohol inks on Yupo by mixing colours and adding blender solution.
I love the bubbly effect I got when I spritzed the Yupo with blender solution, it reminded me of water so I added my jelly fish stamp from Viva Las Vegas.


I'm entering this for the following challenges- CAS Mix up August challenge Alcohol inks, stamping and your choice (mine smooshing), Craft Stampers August Challenge Anything goes, and Viva Las Vegas August Challenge (Inspiration)




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Card Recipe
Stamps: Viva Las Vegas
Paper: 110lb white, Navy, Yupo
Ink: Stazon Black
Accessories: Alcohol inks, blender solution, clear gems
Techniques: Alcohol inks on Yupo

Tuesday 8 August 2017

Salted Sky

CAS Watercolour Challenge for this month is Salted background, so much fun to try if you've never done it.  The challenge has a few links for you to follow if you need some instructions but basically you throw salt (any type) one very wet watercolour and wait and see what happens.  The tough part is the waiting because it has to completely dry before you brush/scrape off the salt.






Card Recipe
Stamps: both from Ali Express (so no manufacturer name)
Paper: 140lb Watercolour, Linen White, black
Ink: Ranger Archival Black
Accessories: MISTI
Techniques: Salt and watercolour

Friday 4 August 2017

Alcohol inks on Yupo

Now I see this on the computer I wish I'd used a less textured card stock.  I used a linen card as the background for the flowers. The texture caused some striations in my solid fairy stamp.  Oh well something to remember next time 😏
My flowers are a Dee's Distinctley die with the heads being cut out of Yupo with alcohol inks, I first cut the whole flowers in watercolour card and watercoloured the stems.  I then cut the flower heads again in the Yupo and attached them to the watercolour paper.  The background, sentiment  and Fairy is stamped in Delicata Gold ink.  The background is from Technique Junkies, the Fairy is from Ali Express, and the sentiment is from Tim Holtz.

I'm entering this for the following challenges
CAS Mix up AI's and Southern Girls flower power.




Card Recipe
Stamps: Fairy from Ali express, background Technique Junkies, sentiment Tim Holtz
Paper: Linen white
Ink: Delicata gold
Accessories: Die (Dee's Distinctively), Yupo, Alcohol Inks
Techniques: Alcohol Inks on Yupo

Thursday 3 August 2017

Cling Wrap Background with Gesso

One of my favorite techniques is cling wrap background, so simple and so pretty.  Here is a link to a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers by Lydia Fiedler (AKA Understandblue) which shows a few colouring mediums you can use with the cling wrap. It's always good when you don't need to buy anything new to try out a tutorial.
For the cling wrap background I used some Bister powders on coated card stock and then later painted it with a thin wash of gesso.  Gesso is a great product for muting down colours or hiding mistakes and restarting.  I wish I'd taken a photo of the background before I'd added the gesso, oh well next time 😄
I'm entering this for Designs by Ryn customer challenge, Daydreamers challenge anything goes






Card Recipe
Stamps: Technique Junkies, Design by Ryn
Paper: 110lb white, Coated card, Black
Ink: Ranger archival
Accessories: Bister, white gel pen, Gesso, cling wrap
Techniques: Cling wrap background

Wednesday 2 August 2017

Shake shake it like a salt shaker

It's time for August's CAS Watercolou challenger, so pull out your salt shakers and join in.
If you have never tried salted water colour this is a must do technique.  Check out the CAS Watercolour blog for links to see how it's done.
For my card I used 3 colours of Distress  Oxide Inks on an acrylic block being careful not to contaminate the ink pad too much.  If you do have a slight contamination of colours you can wipe it off with a clean piece of kitchen roll or baby wipe.   I then spritzed with water and placed on my watercolour paper.  I lifted the block and the watercolour mixed in a puddle of water and ink, so awesome 😏  I sprinkled regular kitchen salt over the paper and you can see where the colours merged I got a great crystal effect from the dried salt,
Course and fine salt give different effects, try both and you will love all the different backgrounds you make.
This background made me think sand and sea so I decided to use my new seahorse from technique junkies and used my zig watercolour pens to colour it in.






Card Recipe
Stamps: Technique Junkies
Paper: 110lb Linnen white, 140lb Water colour
Ink:  Ranger Archival
Accessories: Distress Oxides inks, Salt, zig pens, acrylic block
Techniques: Salt on Watercolour, Acrylic block watercolouring