watercolor

Watercolour Hummingbird

When I saw this colour challenge, I have to admit that I wasn’t excited. The colours together seemed drab and dreary, though I normally like earth tones. However, once I started working with these colours, I realized their potential. I focused on the greens and kept the Soft Suede as an accent.

Here’s the colour challenge from the As You See It Challenge blog:

I was inspired to use the hummingbird from the Humming Along stamp set that I received as a gift at the Stampin’ Up! event last November. If you do a google search of images of hummingbirds, you will see that they come in all sorts of beautiful colours, so I knew that the greens would work great!

Here’s my card using Soft Suede, Granny Apple Green, and Shaded Spruce:

The Rectangle Stitched Framelit Dies make a beautiful layer, don’t you think? I used Watercolor Paper and stamped the hummingbird image from the Humming Along Stamp Set with Versamark ink. Then I applied White Embossing Powder, tapped off the excess and heat set the image. Once that was cooled, I watercoloured the image with my two green inks, Granny Apple Green and Shaded Spruce, using an Aqua Painter. You might not be able to see it in the photos, but once the watercolouring dried, I added some highlights in the feathers with my clear Wink of Stella brush pen.

With the hummingbird as my focus, I embellished the card with a strip of Soft Suede woodgrain patterned paper and some Granny Apple Green 1/2″ Textured Weave Ribbon. To the ribbon, I tied some Linen Thread in a bow. Over top of those embellishments, I added the Watercolor Paper die cut and sentiment. The die is from the Wonderful Floral Framelit Dies and was stamped in Soft Suede ink with a sentiment from the Sale-a-bration Part of My Story stamp set.

On the inside of the card (not shown), I used another Rectangle Stitched Framelit die and Whisper White cardstock to create a nice defined space where I can write a message.

Be sure to watch for a video of the creation of this card on my YouTube channel to be posted in the next couple days. I will be showing you the technique that I used to paint my hummingbird.

All of these products and more can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE. You can earn products for FREE with every $60 or $120 purchase until the end of this month. Don’t wait, though, as some items have already sold out!

Watercolour Birch Trees

Welcome all who are faithful followers and all who wandered over here by chance. I hope you enjoy your stay!

I admit to scrambling for this As You See It Challenge. I missed telling you all about the challenge two weeks ago – card made, but blog neglected. That’s how it goes sometimes when your Stampin’ Up life takes a back seat to your family life. As it should. Family first.

I did not want to disappoint you this time (or let myself down again). My card was created very last minute and I am writing this post at 5:30 am, scrambling to complete it for the 6am deadline. (I’m already 15 minutes late!). I was actually a little bit grateful to my husband last night who started watching Monty Python’s “And Now for Something Completely Different” with my 13 year old son when I had already said I would spend time with my son watching Merlin on Netflix. They got caught up in the hilarity of their show (I even had to pause to watch a bit), so I took advantage of my sudden free time and used scraps from a class to create my card for this colour challenge from the As You See It Challenge Blog.

As You See It Challenge #148

I love the Woodland Embossing Folder from Stampin’ Up! It is one that I use over and over again. I just recently discovered how easy it is to watercolour around the embossed edges of the paper. This is what my scraps from my last class look like combined with this colour challenge:Watercolour Birch Trees by Amy Jasper www.inkingonthefly.com - using the Woodland Embossing Folder from Stampin' Up!

Pretty pretty pretty!! I think I’m in love!

With my Woodland Embossing folder and the Big Shot, I embossed the trees on a 2-1/2″ square piece of Watercolor Paper from Stampin’ Up! Then I used my Aqua Painter and picked up ink from my ink pads (Pink Pirouette, So Saffron, and Garden Green) and coloured between the trees, careful to stay within the guidelines that the embossed edges provided. Once I was happy with my blended background, the trees looked too plain, so I dipped my Stampin’ Up Aqua Painter into some Tip Top Taupe ink and accented the birch bark. With some watered-down Tip Top Taupe ink, I then washed some shading on the right side of the tree trunks to give them some dimension.

watercolour birch trees by Amy Jasper www.inkingonthefly.com using the Woodland Embossing Folder by Stampin' Up!

Once I was happy with my final result, I allowed the watercolouring to dry. Then I used the Clear Wink of Stella to create some shimmery splatter among the trees by tapping the brush over my finger above the paper. Glorious!!

The rest was just like we did in my class the night before: I used the blade of my Paper Snips from Stampin’ Up to texture the edges of the Watercolor Paper. This is an old technique that I haven’t used in quite a while. I think it creates a nice contrast to the smooth white background on this card.

Assembly was easy after that.  Adhere the 2-5/8″ square piece of Pink Pirouette cardstock to the top middle of the 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Whisper White cardstock. Stamp the sentiment from the Weather Together stamp set below and to the right of the pink square using Garden Green ink. Wrap Linen Thread around the cardstock and tie a bow to the left of the pink square. Adhere the watercoloured piece to the Pink Pirouette square using Stampin’ Up Dimensionals. Finally, use Stampin’ Up Dimensionals again to adhere the entire assembly of layers to the Thick Whisper White card base.

Watercolour Birch Trees by Amy Jasper www.inkingonthefly.com - using the Woodland Embossing Folder by Stampin' Up!VOILA! A lovely card that I will be proud to give to someone to thank them for putting up with my inconsistencies and blunders!

Seriously, thank you for continuing to come back even after I forget to post each week 🙂

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