Watercolour day 3 attempt 2!!

So last night, I created a card using the watercolour technique Jennifer had shown by way of inking stamps, spraying them with water and then stamping them. The inks I used were not great, and I was feeling a bit down that my card just wasn't what I was wanting it to be. So, I decided to try again!! The problem I felt was that I had decided to use the card for a challenge that required specific colours and the expectation was that a certain brand of stamps were used. I felt that this tied me down too much and left me unable to achieve the result I wanted.

I decided to have a second try at it, this time using Memento Inks and using various brands of stamps. I decided to go with the same layout as Jennifer had, but of course adding my own twist to it. I also took her advice of planning the flower arrangement on a piece of scrap paper first and this worked a dream.

The Memento inks, instead of the Hobbycraft own brand ones, left me able to get the results I was really trying to achieve. I now have a card, that I am super pleased with. As always, I added bling by way of some pearls and a button and twine between my two sentiments. I would love to hear what you think - and if you agree that this is way better than my attempt last night!

My second card, follows the technique shown by Jennifer Maguire. An acrylic block was stamped with some embossing ink, watercolour paint was added to the edges of the block and then sprayed with loads of water. The block was then placed on a piece of watercolour paper and pressed down with a book on top for a minute or so. The block was removed and the excess paint/water dabbed up with a paper towel. Jennifer had shown us how to then print a stamp using distress inks - I of course don't have these and so I decided to see what would happen if i coloured my stamp with watercolour paints and then stamped the image - OMG - I was super impressed!!!! I covered the stamp in embossing ink first so the paint had something to adhere to and I stamped in two stages, the greenery first, dried it, cleaned my stamp, reined with embossing ink and then painted the petals in deep purple. I actually squealed with delight once I had printed the flowers!!! I then coloured in the stamped image by watering down the colours I had used for the stamping stage. I added a bit of deeper purple at the flower centres just to give a bit of depth to them. Once dried, it was a case of stamping the sentiment, adding a few crystals (can you tell I am sequin/crystals/pearls obsessed) and then I added this card to a backing card. Before this final stage however, I wasn't happy with the top right corner - there was too definite a line where the paint ended. I simply corrected this a bit (you can still see it a bit) by coming in with my paintbrush and just trying to blend it out a bit with some more matching paint.

As always, I would be delighted with any comments you wish to add.

Laura xxx