Hello everyone! It's Friday again! And here comes our

Five for Friday

Our design team has been busy with our Rock My World Stamp Set! It is my personal favorite in this release and I just LOVE what the ladies have come up with this set! Here are five links to the five most recent posts they've done! What is the perfect ink to use for overlapping? Check out Suzanne's beautiful card here! The skinny shadow/grass stamp got to be the center of attention on Lorena's cool card here! Rocks are trending! Katie shared the source of her inspiration for her clever card here! Lorena was back with a video tutorial! She shared a super cool masking technique with us! I was there when Kim was working on this naturalist card! So simple yet so original!! Thank you for making our products stand-out, ladies! Check out our product page for more examples!

A Watercolored Card

Ahem! Yes, I joined the Watercolor for Card Makers online class and have learned some very cool watercolor techniques! Here is the result of me playing with some of my new favorites! I also used our Rock My World Stamp Set on this card! Doesn't it look like a big rock or beautiful flowers floating on top of water? I feel like an artist when playing with watercolor :) There are many possible interpretations! Haha! There were a few times I went "oops" and got stuck but it turned out nice in the end! I would like to share some new things I've learned during the process. Stamp with a light color distress ink and then watercolor in to make it look like a hand painted image was the technique I was trying to focus on. But maybe because I used a piece of Bristol Board (for a smooth finish) instead of watercolor paper, the stamped lines didn't "disappear". It doesn't bother me on this card but I will definitely give the technique another try on some real watercolor paper in the future.

Supplies

1. Stamp the FLowers.

I started by stamping the flowers. I tried to add a few here and there each time. Something I've learned about creating random patterns is that don't be afraid of white space. Leave some white space will make your pattern look more "random".

2. Stamp the Leaves.

I was simply trying to fill the gaps among the flowers with some leaves.

3. Pick Colors.

I've had this Bonus Pak of Nicholson's Peerless Transparent Watercolors for a while. It has been my favorite watercolor medium. The watercolors come in as  double-sided paper. On the front, it shows the true color of the watercolor. The back of the paper may seem dark and weird but it is where we will pick up the color with a wet brush. I numbered my paper so I can always tell which color I used.

4. Create color palette for base coats.

Cut a small piece of the color paper out and add water to use for base coats or a large area of color. We can adjust the color intensity by removing water with a piece of paper towel or adding another piece of paper.

5. Painting

I was afraid that the Bristol would not take as much water as watercolor paper so I started painting with a light shade of color instead of plain water. Then while the base coat was still wet, I picked up more color from the back of the paper and added to the area where I needed shading. Instead of going "back-n-forth" with the brush, we are actually "dabbing" into a pool of water and let the color "flow" into position. After I colored all the flowers and let them dry, I "dabbed" the blue color on the rest of the card, including the center. The trick is to keep it wet as long as possible to avoid harsh edges/lines. As for my card, you can argue that the edges are the natural look of rock cracks or water ripples. Haha! I had so much fun making this card!

A Heads-up

Coming next week are more inspiring design team projects!! May 24, Saturday Katie will share a project with our Hey Mr. Stamp Set May 26, Monday Joni's Blog May 28, Wednesday May's Blog May 30, Friday Lorena's Blog June 1 -4, Sunday - Wednesday Come join our June Release Preview on the blog! See you soon!!