Today I am back to posting my everyday creations. I have been sharing my non-winning Artisan Award entries for the past several week so I haven't stamped much during the month of July. It was a little bit of a challenge to get back into the stampin' groove, but I am really pleased that I did. I have been wanting to try my hand again at the Clean & Simple Stamping sketch challenges and this was a great week to jump in with both feet because they are celebrating their 100th sketch...and it's a great one.
I have been practicing my watercoloring technique over the past few weeks so I decided to get bold and share my attempt at watercoloring with markers and blender pens. I love the bold colors you get when you use markers on watercolor paper. I am still perfecting my "browns" so my little girl's hair has the frizzies (it must have been really humid that day or maybe she needs a new shampoo), but overall I am pleased with the results. Except for the watercolor paper, this card is 100% Stampin' Up! and I am so excited about that. I tend to be a little lazy when it comes to coloring and I fall back on my Copics when in doubt. I must admit that it is wonderful having markers that are an exact match to my other SU supplies. (SU watercolor paper comes pre-cut smaller than a standard A5 card front, so I had to rely on an old wc pad I had laying around.)
These adorable little girls are from The Nicest Things (#120531/clear) stamp set and the greeting is from Great Friend. Don't they work so well together? I stamped them with StazOn Jet Black ink and used my markers and blender pens to color...I felt like a kid again! You have to work fairly fast with this technique because you don't want the marker to fully dry before you blend it. I mounted the finished piece on the new Build-A-Bear Workshop Pawsitively Prints DSP. The new Poppy Parade 1/2" stitched ribbon matches perfectly with this DSP. I also used the Poppy Parade marker so my "reds" would match. The new Poppy Parade in-color is a little more "orange/red" than Real Red. I also used tempting turquoise, daffodil delight, blush blossom, pear pizzazz and blushing bride markers.
