Class Practice Continues

I'm doing a whole lot of watercolor practice right now before class wraps up next week.  Some projects I feel hugely successful with and others not so much. Ninety-Nine percent of my card recipients are female so flower images are always good for those.

This image was colored using traditional Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolor in #36 - Wine Red, and #58 - Evergreen with a Perfect Pearls Solution and some clean water.  I make my own solution with Perfect Pearls Pigment Powder and some water in a little sprayer bottle that came from Stampin' Up!.  You can buy Perfect Pearls Solution already made up and in a spray bottle.  I used the tiniest amount of #63 - Persian Blue, along with a VERY watered down bit of the Red Wine to achieve the super soft background.  One thing I have really learned this week is to walk away and let it dry.  The colors really come to life when they have a chance to dry.  Being a control freak, watercolor is very hard for me.  I have a hard time letting the water and the pigment do their thing.  This class has been so worth it to me for the the sheer amount of practice I'm getting.  I'm able to achieve the looks I desire for card making.  Even though I know people won't criticize a card they get in the mail, I still want my cards to be as nice as possible.

I love Altenew Stamps for the lined images they design.  They also have matching dies for many of their floral images.  This particular set is call Persian Motifs and I have the matching dies although I haven't used them yet.  The Henna Elements set is very nice as well as Peony Scrolls.  The images stamp super clean also with a thin line rather than a thicker one which is great for the "Emboss then Watercolor " technique.   Some people like bright white embossing powder for this technique but I like using Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing Powder so that the embossing will be the same color as my watercolor paper.  In case I forgot to mention it before, the heat embossing helps the watercolor stay in the image and not go venturing outside of that line.

You all should be so proud of me because I got my Gansai Tambi Watercolors swatched!  I love this set so much now that I have had a chance to play with it following instruction.  Simon Says Stamp has this set available in 12, 18, 24 & 36 color sets.  Being Japanese Watercolors, they are extremely high quality.

I have about three different types of watercolor card stock at this time, but this one uses Canson Watercolor Paper.  It is 140# and cold pressed.  I haven't seen hot pressed paper at any of my local stores.  The difference is that hot pressed watercolor paper is very smooth.  I prefer to use the smooth side to my regular paper but you can also use the more textured side.  It just depends on the look you are going for.  Simon Says Stamp carries a wide variety of Professional Grade Arches Hot & Cold Pressed Watercolor Paper.  It's fancier than I need just for cards but I like to know where I can get it should I desire to experiment further, *wink*.

This card uses a white card base cut at 5.25 x 8.5 inches and top scored at 4.25 inches.   I used the WPLUS9 Sunshine Layers Die Set for the scalloped panel and the interior panel as well.  The burgundy is some Bazzill Mulberry which is a 100# weight.  I looked through my sentiment dies, but I didn't feel like any of them were a good fit on this card so I left it off this time.  I'm sending this card to my sweet Mother-In-Law who is at an assisted living facility.  She always loved cards when she was still able to be home so I think she enjoys the ones I make and send off to her.