Stamp-A-Faire Remix

Over on the Papertrey Ink Blog today we are having a remix from last weekend's Stamp-A-Faire. If there were any projects that you didn't get to or that you wanted a do-over for, now is the time for this week's challenge.  I really liked my "Watercolor Like A Master" project but I really wanted to try it in some different colors so that is what I sat down to do today.

I started with a 4.5 x 6 inch piece of Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper (so that I could have the smooth surface) and the "Mums the Word Stamp Set" from Papertrey Ink.  This is the set that Kay Miller used in her video tutorial for this technique called "Watercolor Like a Master".  If you click the link it will take you to her tutorial. It is no secret that I love to make cards with watercolored blooms or those that have the appearance of being watercolored like with this technique.

I inked up the the Mums with Hibiscus Burst and Amethyst Allure inks and stamped them onto my watercolor paper.  Since I wanted a whole different color family I also used Ocean Tides for the leaves that were added last.  As soon as I had those stamped I worked the floral images with a water brush.  Once I had the blooms done, I worked the leaves just a bit, being very careful not to let the green mix with the pink and purple since this would make brown.  Then I set it aside to dry for a while before I came back in to add some splatters. I used a drop of Hibiscus Burst Reinker with a mist of water and using my #4 Round Silver Black Velvet Paint Brush, tapped the brush onto the handle of another to create the splatter.  After that dried, I used my Finetec Mica Gold Watercolor in Arabic Gold to make some gold splatters.  I use a shallow box to do my splatters. The background mat is Lovely Lady Cardstock mounted on an A2 Top Folding Card Base from Papertrey Ink's Rustic White Cardstock.

For step by step instructions, you can visit the Papertrey Ink Blog and watch the tutorial for yourself.  Kay did a great job of teaching it and there's no need for me to go through the step by step instructions,  You could easily mimic this technique by misting your paper or your stamps with water and then stamping. However, neither of those techniques will work on regular white card stock. Good quality Watercolor paper is a must.

I liked the results of my colors so much that I made a second panel mounted on an A2 Top Folding Card Base made from Hibiscus Burst Card Stock.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I have several projects coming up that I hope you'll enjoy so be sure to check back here every few days.

Papertrey Ink's Stamp-A-Faire 2016

I am popping on here with a quick post and note to say that I will be using my blog as a place to upload projects for the festivities this weekend that are part of Papertrey Ink's Stamp-A-Faire 2016.  I will eventually edit everything to go to their posts but hang with me for a few days!  This is going to be a long post with lots of pictures.

They said to post a picture of ourselves or one of our projects for the Team Farewell InLinkz list. I haven't had time to do all of the projects or techniques yet so a picture of me it is.

Me and my "puppy girls", Holly and Reese

We were asked to go through our projects and pick a "masterpiece" of our own making for the Friday Night Gallery Reception to start things off.  I wanted to be sure it used primarily Papertrey Ink products.  This is a card I made to send to my friend, Yana Smakula.  Yana gives a ton of her time and talent to this industry. She does incredible video tutorials and she's the only person I know who likes and uses Gold as much as I do. She lives in Ukraine and being on several design teams has access to lots of supplies.  I wanted to send her something she probably wouldn't have so I chose Papertrey's Tulip Time Stamps.  My original post is here.  I still love this combination of Berry Sorbet and Sea Glass.

Our first technique today was creating a night sky and we used Van Gogh's Starry Night as well as some of his own words to inspire us. Vincent Van Gogh wrote about the technical challenge of depicting a night sky: "It often seems to me that the night is even more richly colored than the day, colored with the most intense violets, blues and greens.... It's clear to me to paint a starry sky it's not nearly enough to put white spots on blue-black."

I did my technique a bit differently than Amy did.  I used all ink blending on Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper in Enchanted Evening, Hibiscus Brust, Plum Pudding all from Papertrey plus some Pine Needles Distress Ink.  My Pine Feather ink has not arrived yet. I wanted to use the Arches Hot Pressed because I knew I would be adding a lot of water and I needed my paper to stand up to the repeated misting.  I also like how smooth it is.  I used one of my favorite products to get all the shimmer in my sky.  Once I was completely finished with all of the ink blending I spritzed my panel with Tsukineko Sheer Sparkle Shimmer Spritz.  You can find that product at Simon Says Stamp (link on the right hand side bar) and probably Amazon as well.

Amy used a cosmetic wedge to make her silhouette trees and hills.  I used my Black Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker to create mine.  I just did it freehand by drawing a fairly straight line and then zig-zagging back and forth to form the branch outlines. I laid my panel in a shallow box and using Finetec Mica Watercolor in the shade "Sterling Silver", put splatters all over.  I did lay two pieces of paper towel across the hills and trees to keep the splatter off of them. While the splatter was still wet, I took a pinch of WOW! Neutral Ultra Shimmer Embossing Glitter and sprinkled it over the night sky and then heat set that. I cut three "Faith" die cuts from Stamper's Select White and glued them one on top of the other for the thicker embellishment.  The rest of the sentiment was stamped in Versamark on a strip of black cardstock and heat embossed using WOW! Super Fine Opaque Bright White Embossing Powder.  I added a few star sequins and iridescent crystal sequins to finish this off and adhered it to a Top Folding Stamper's Select White Card Base.  

This will be a favorite for a long time.  I'm sure many more of these will be in my future.  My husband actually said he wanted me to send this one to him! 

For my next project, we were to select a Master Inspiration Project from the Design Team and complete a project of our own.  It was a little bit of a hard choice for me because I love Monet's work so much and Dawn McVey did that one, but I ended up choosing Kay Miller and her Georgia O'Keefe styled watercolor.  Georgia O'Keefe is a favorite of mine as well.  This stamp is from Botanical Blocks III which is a favorite for watercoloring.  

Now, I'll just tell you right here that this card didn't photograph very well but I do really like it IRL.  The watercolor is matted on black Chalkboard Paper as is the sentiment from Neat and Tangled.  I love how it has a shadow for the word included with the die.  The card base is made from Rustic White Cardstock which has little flecks of color in it.  Not a lot like in the Spicy Yogurt Cardstock I used not too long ago, but a few flecks to give it some texture and interest.  

Next up is my card for the "Watercolor Like a Master" technique.  This is similar to a technique that I do from time to time.  You can just stamp your images onto watercolor paper (I used Arches Hot Pressed) then take water and a brush to the image and let the paint move a bit, being careful not to mix colors that make "mud" as in brown color.  You can't mix the Red with the green for instance.  I even threw in lots of splatters like Lexi showed us in "Mastering Drips & Splatters".  Kay showed some as well in her tutorial.  This stamp set is Mums the Word.  I want to try this again with a different green.  I would have rather used a pine colored ink for the leaves, but my Pine Feather Ink Cube has not been delivered yet.  I used Hibiscus Burst and Berry Sorbet for the flowers and New Leaf for the Leaves.  Everything is attached to a top folding Berry Sorbet card base.

Since I am still working on my project for the blog hop tomorrow I am not linking anything up today.  I hope to have time to go back through before the day is finished tomorrow.  Thank you to all who stopped by to see my projects.  I love and appreciate it when you take time to comment.  Have a great Sunday!

Update:  This next card is for two of the challenges - Gilded in Gold and Mastering Drips and Spatters.  I masked off the edges of a Noted: A2 Card Base and splatered with Martha Stewart Liquid Gilding.  You need to use a disposable brush for this and be sure to splatter in a box or something to contain the mess.  I use a shallow box for this. Once the splatter dried, I made more spatter using Hibiscus Burst, Plum Pudding and Winter Wisteria inks for this fun and playful background.  I'm running short on time so I needed to combine two challenges into one project.  I hope this is allowed since I'll be linking this card up to both of those SAF Challenges.  *Ü*  It's really a clean and simple card, but I love it.  I used the "Hello" Sentiment from Graceful Greetings stamped in Ranger Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder.

I am still working on a couple of projects to fit in before the deadline so this post will likely be updated a few more times.