Welcome back to our Fancy Friday Blog Hop. This month we have an interesting challenge...use one of our least used colors. I decided to focus on purple since that seems to be the color family I neglect the most. You may see me add it in as an accent color on a whim, but it is almost never my go-to color for cards. I think that is funny because purple was my favorite color when I was a teenager. I have been in so many challenges lately where my colors, stamp sets, layouts, etc. have been dictated...it was refreshing to make something that I love.
I was looking back at some of my projects and I almost never use Elegant Eggplant or Rich Razzleberry. So I decided to incorporate them into my card. I added in some Blackberry Bliss to round out my purples.
I also wanted to try something a little different. In the annual catalog Stampin' Up! says that the Shimmery White Cardstock is a great option for water coloring, so I thought I would give it a try. The shimmery white cardstock does react a little differently than regular watercolor paper, but in many ways I like it better. First of all, the shimmery white cardstock is really smooth, so the stamped images are really crisp and clean. Secondly, it accepts the water/reinker mixture well and doesn't pill like regular cardstock. Thirdly, the colors stay vibrant. Finally, it has a very subtle shimmery coating and it gives your finished projects just a hint of glimmer.
I started by creating the background by just dropping watered down reinker onto the cardstock. I made a huge mistake and didn't tape it down to anything, so the paper curled and the water & ink made a great big mess. Thankfully I had a paper towel close at hand and I was able to clean up the disaster. That resulted in some fun paper blot patterns from the designs in the paper towel. Then after everything dried, I went back in and added more color. After that I put water droplets all over the background and then mopped it up with a clean paper towel. I love, love, love how it turned out, but it sure was messy. I stamped the flowers from Best Thoughts on Shimmery White cardstock as well and just painted them with the Aquapainter and reinkers. Then I fussy-cut them and attached them to the card front with dimensionals. Finally, I used a uniball signo white marker to add back the white hilights to the flower stamens. The sequins were just some clear ones (Darice) that I purchased at the craft store. They have just a hint of pink, so they were perfect for this card.
I hope you like today's card. I can't wait to see what the other Fancy Friday team members have created. Now be sure to hop on over to visit the incredibly talented Krista.
