Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge featuring Stampendous

Hello!  I'm back with my post for this week's Designer in the Spotlight at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog.  This week our theme is "Anything Goes" and we are featuring products from Stampendous. You don't have to use Stampendous products to enter the challenge, but if you have some, we would love to see them used. This is my last week in the Designer Spotlight and it has been a treat to get to create alongside some of my favorite ladies! Thank you so much for having me along this month. You've left such sweet comments for me here on my blog and I really appreciate it.   

Simon Says Stamp generously provides a $50.00 Gift Voucher each week for each of their blog challenges. Winners are selected from all of the entries by Random Draw each week.  Thank you, Heidi, for providing that each week.

For my card, I started with a piece of Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper and heat embossed my images using Versamark and Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  When I buy the pads of watercolor paper, I take them to Kinkos and have them cut into 4.5 x 6 inch panels so they are a little bit larger than the size I need when making a card. I like to die cut my background panels for that super crisp and clean cut so the smaller size makes it easy.

Whenever you do heat embossing of your outline images, this creates a channel for the water to flow in. Easy-peasy!  I worked in a Jewelry Store many years ago where we sold lots of loose diamonds and created custom mountings for engagement, wedding and dinner style rings.  Many of the smaller stones were set into a channel to keep them contained and water works the same way.  I'm just creating a little gold channel when I heat emboss.  You can use any color of embossing powder that you like.  I just happen to like this one the most.  I go through about 6 jars of it a year. I do a lot of heat embossing and the most important thing is to use some kind of a powder tool first!

For all of my watercoloring today, I wanted something easy, so I smooshed a bit of Distress Ink onto an acrylic block and picked it up with a water brush to color my images.  For the Lilacs, I used Seedless preserves and the darker blooms just have additional layers of color on them and the same is true for the leaves and butterfly.  The leaves were done with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink and the butterfly with Peacock Feathers Ink.  This is an easy way to color without the stress of trying to use "real" watercolors in the correct technical manner.

Once all of the painting was finished and dry, I went back in with my Tonic Aqua Shimmer Pen and gave some shimmer to all of the images, especially the butterfly and let it dry again. Once it was dry, I die cut all of the images with the coordinating dies.  I cut a stitched rectangle using the WPLUS9 Gift Card Layers Stitched Rectangle Die to cut a white background panel and did a bit of ink blending with some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.  I used a combination of Thin 3D Foam Squares, Scotch 3D Foam Tape and Ranger Multi Medium Matte to adhere the elements to the background panel and I put a piece of fun foam behind that panel to give a little bit more dimension.  I really considered adding for sequins or confetti but in the end, I liked the simpler image much better.

For the sentiment, I used the Simon Says Stamp "oh hello there" die to die cut the sentiment, but just used the word "hello".  I love the handwriting of this die (Kristina Werner's I'm sure) and it's one that I use often to send cards to friends.

Thank you so much for stopping by today to see my card!  I appreciate all of the kind and encouraging comments.  I've linked the supplies I've used below for your convenience (Affiliate Links may be used at no additional cost to you).

Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper 9 x 12 #140 Shop at: SSS	Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS	Distress Ink Mini Cube - Mowed Lawn Shop at: SSS	Distress Ink Mini Cube - Peacock Feathers Shop at: SSS
Distress Ink Mini Cube - Seedless Preserves Shop at: SSS	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Refill Shop at: SSS	MISTI Stamping Tool Shop at: SSS	Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS
Scotch 3M Foam Tape Shop at: SSS	Scrapbook Adhesives Thin 3D Foam Squares Shop at: SSS	SSS Antique Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS	Stampendous Lilac Die Cut Set Shop at: SSS
Stampendous Lilac Stamp Set with Stencil Shop at: SSS	Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS	Tonic 6 Inch Personal Trimmer Shop at: SSS	Tonic Aqua Shimmer Pen Shop at: SSS
Versamark Ink Shop at: SSS	Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS	WPLUS9 Gift Card Layers Designer Dies Shop at: SSS

Cheery Winter Birds

The card I have for you today uses one of my favorite techniques which is Watercolor using markers/pens.  I started with a piece of Canson Bristol 96# watercolor paper and the Stampendous Winter Birds Cling Stamp which I stamped and heat set using Simon Says Stamp Fine Detail Gold Embossing Powder.  I happen to buy this particular type of watercolor paper at Hobby Lobby using a coupon most of the time.

I started coloring the birds using a Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pen in Brown for the body and Mid Brown for the Belly.  Then I decided I should probably look at a picture so I googled "Winter Birds" to see some images.  My images are not lifelike at all, but it's okay.  I went ahead and colored them for my Mother-In-Law who just loves seeing the birds and flowers no matter what time of year it is and she won't care whether or not they are realistic.

I like this particular watercolor paper a lot because it is so smooth, yet affordable for card making. It costs me about 6 cents per panel if I get at least 6 panels out of one 11 x 14 sheet.  I also like the Canson XL 140# watercolor paper but it is more cream than white and sometimes I just want the nice soft white of the Bristol.  It's all a matter of personal preference.  However, it will pill up if you work it too much or with too much water so I grabbed a Distress Marker in "Pine Needles" and started working on the evergreen branches in the image between the layers of brown on the birds.  I tried to keep moving so I would not make the paper pill and just went back and forth to different areas each time.  It's very helpful if you aren't working on adjacent areas at the same time.

I wanted some fun color for the little birdie's winter gear so I just did each color layer back and forth on the two birds until I had them all colored with the red, blue and green. One of the particularly nice things about the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens is that they have a super fine brush tip so they can be skinny mini or quite a bit thicker depending on how soft or hard you press with the brush. You don't need to have all 80 colors of these pens because you can make lighter or darker versions of all of the colors.  I think I have about 48 of them now (I originally purchased a 36 set) and I don't really feel I have any missing at this point.  There are lights and darks in each color so you can pretty much do anything you need to.  Many graphic artists use the Zig Pens to color with and they are not using any water, so that should be a good indication of how "juicy" they are.

Once I had the image colored, I went over the white snow and the pom-poms on the bird's winter gear with my Clear Wink of Stella Pen.  Then I added the greeting in Versamark and heat set it with WOW! Primary Apple Red Embossing Powder to go with the striped card base I had chosen. I cut the watercolor panel using the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die in the largest size which is slightly smaller than 4 x 5.25 inches.

I still wasn't too happy with the appearance of the snow or the pom-poms so I added a layer of Ranger Glossy Accents to them.  Then I sprinkled just a pinch of Elizabeth Craft Cool Diamond Glitter on top of that while it was still wet to make it really sparkle and shine. Now I like it (giggle) and it fits the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for this week.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Please feel free to leave a comment or question if you do.