Cards from experiments and online examples

This anniversary card went from okay to horrible to Hey-I-like-this. The stamped image is from Stampin' Up's Rose Wonder stamp set. I stamped three images onto watercolor paper and proceeded to play with Brusho. See Sandy Allnock's description here for what these watercolor pigments are and how they are used.  One attempt had a great background but I went way too dark on the rose and lost detail. The next attempt would have shown you that adding more details and layers doesn't always work. You need to decide when to stop and I didn't...but that is okay. Experimenting is learning.

I began by wetting an area, such as the rose petals and sprinkling on powdered pigments. Most often I only chose one Brusho color but because they contain a mix of colors within each bottle, how they react to wet paper makes splotchy but great surprises. If I had mixed the powder with water in a cup or on a silicone mat, it would have become one blended color as you would get straight from a tube, crayon or bottle.

I had the leaves and rose done when I applied water to the background for the blue splatters. Some of the petals and leaves weren't dry so the blue pigments mixed with the colors already there. That was fine with me.  Once the rose was completely dry, I mixed up some of the red pigment and redefined the petal edges. I'm not thrilled with the hard lines but don't hate it. The background still needed something but I didn't want anything heavy so I did a mist of color, holding the image in a carton while I sprayed a color over it. I believe I used Pale Ale by Memories Mist which might have been discontinued.

Switching mediums, I colored this image The Chicks Who Couldn't Even by Stampingbella, using Copic markers.

This next one is taken directly from Sandy Allnock using Avery Elle's Hello Chum stamp set. 

 

After a few days of looking at it, I decided it needed more blue and more blending in the water and also some small fish. The stamp set does have fish stamps but I had already assembled this car on dimensionals so I drew them on with a Copic multiliner. Sorry about how different the color looks in the second photo. Indoor lighting is not my friend.