Technique Tuesday - Watercolor Backgrounds

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!  This is my last Technique Tuesday of the year for 2010.  I look forward to sharing many, many more ideas with you in 2011, with Techniques Tuesdays, gallery cards, and challenges, as well as general postings. 
I would like to thank so many of you who have taken time to comment on my blog postings, or sent me emails of encouragement.  It really means a lot to me, and inspires me to keep going.  It really is great to hear that you are enjoying my efforts.....so thanks again.

For today's technique, I played with watercolor for a background.  These are quite simple, really.  I just used watercolor paper, spritzed it with water until it was quite wet, then rubbed ink from stamp pads onto my craft mat, and picked up the ink colors from the mat with a water brush, then ran the brush across the wet paper.  The instant the brush touches the paper, it runs and spreads.  If the color does not bleed as much as you'd like, simply spritz, or add more water with your water brush.  When it looks the way you like, dry with a heat tool.  The colors will dry a little lighter than they appeared when they were wet, so it's good to keep that in mind. The paper will curl while it is drying, so I turn it over and dry both sides until it flattens back out.  You can always iron it flat, but I find that the tape holds it down on the card and keeps it flat.

On this purple/green sympathy card, I used eggplant and lettuce Adirondack inks, then dried the paper with my heat tool right away.  I used Nestabilities dies for the shape for the design panels, then I stamped the flourishes and the sympathy saying (Impression-Obsession stamps) with black ink.  Finally, I added some silk flowers, crystals, and highlighted with the Stardust gel pen.

I began this thank you card the same way, with watercolor paper, and cranberry and current Adirondack inks.  Then, I decided to give it another spritz of water, and inked the dragonflies in the two colors and stamped them randomly over the entire wet background.  I love the way they faded and feathered into the background.  After drying with a heat tool, I stamped and embossed thank you in the bottom right corner.  I stamped the frame and saying on white, cut it out, mounted onto black, then cut around to give a narrow black border.  I wrapped ribbon around the watercolor panel, tied a bow, then attached the frame over the bow with foam mounting tape.  I layered the panel onto a black card, and highlighted with a Stardust gel pen and added crystals to finish it off.

If you are on Facebook, stop by and say hello...I'd love to "friend" you.  This is me: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1181568098 . 

That's it for tonight.  Have a very happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!  God bless.

lynda