Watercolour Carousel
Watercolouring is such a beautiful look and can seem like a difficult venture. But it doesn’t have to be a challenge. This card is created using a simple watercolour technique combined with the emboss resist. Easy peasy!
I started by stamping the carousel image from the Carousel Birthday stamp set with Versamark ink on Stampin Up’s Watercolor Cardstock. Then I added some clear embossing powder to the image, tapped off the excess and heat set it with my Heat Tool until the image was clear and shiny.
Next, I applied water over the image. Just clear water using my Aqua Painter for a mess-free experience. I put the water only where I wanted my colour and applied it quite liberally to get the watercolour cardstock good and wet!
The inks came next: First I picked up some Bermuda Bay with my Aqua Painter and applied it to the top most section of my wet cardstock. I didn’t have to move the ink around very much as the water I had applied first did most of the work for me. I cleaned off my brush and picked up some Calypso Coral ink and applied it to the middle section of the area being careful to avoid having it touch the Bermuda Bay too much (that would just get muddy looking and nobody likes a muddy fairground!). Lastly, I cleaned off my brush again and used it to apply some Peek-a-boo Peach ink to the lower portion of my watered cardstock. To get the best colour saturation, I made sure that I used a drop of Ink Refill in the lid of each of these colours. This allowed me to pick up a nicely concentrated amount of ink on my Aqua Painter brush.
When I was happy with my colours, I set that aside to dry and continued with the rest of the card. The image doesn’t end up coloured with the rest of the paper because the embossing repells the ink, not allowing it to saturate those areas of the watercolour cardstock.
Sahara Sand cardstock was used for the card base, then a layer of Tip Top Taupe. The patterned paper used is from the Cupcakes and Carousels Designer Series Paper Stack from Stampin’ Up. I used one larger strip across the front of the card and another smaller strip as an accent behind the Very Vanilla banner. The sentiment, also from the Carousel Birthday stamp set, was inked using my Stampin’ Up Markers (Bermuda Bay, Early Espresso, and Calypso Coral), on which I “huffed” with my breath to re-moisten the ink before stamping it on the Very Vanilla cardstock.
When my watercoloured image was dry, I could add it as my next layer using Stampin’ Up Dimensionals. The banner ends were hand cut with my Paper Snips; the patterned paper banner adhered directly, while the Very Vanilla banner with the sentiment was adhered using Stampin’ Up Dimensionals.
Almost done! It just needed some bling, so I added a strip of three Basic Rhinestones just below the right side of the banner and one single larger Basic Rhinestone to the center of the carousel image.
I hope you like it. I sure do! It’s sooo pretty!
Be sure to leave me a hello and let me know if you’ve tried this watercolouring technique before and how it worked out for you.
