The Old “Watercolour on an Acrylic Block” trick ….

Thank you for stopping by my blog today! Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators from around the world are being highlighted internationally by Kylie Bertucci and you are able to VOTE for my project.

The top ten winners will get to be part of an international blog hop so I would love it if you would pop on over and vote for my project (insert fluttering eyelashes)! You can do that here.

The theme for this highlight is using the stamp set All Things Thanks (Wood Mount or Clear Mount). This is a wonderful stamp set in the 2017 Occasions Catalogue (page 35) with so many gorgeous sentiments.

Here is the card I created for the highlight ….

I used the largest greeting from the set “Thanks for Everything” … I think that pretty much covers all my thank you’s rolled into one! The fonts in this set are amazing, and this particular greeting is large enough to stand alone on a card front … combined with a pretty background of course.

Watercolour Acrylic Block

So you know how this goes, right?  You ink up an acrylic block (or part of an acrylic block as I have done here), spritz it with water, and then smoosh it onto a piece of watercolour paper.  When you lift the block up the watery ink sort of puddles and you can move it around a bit by tilting the piece of card. Dry with a heat tool before adding the next colour.
I used all brights in the colour palette … Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Rich Razzleberry and Tempting Turquoise.  To keep the nice even-ish rectangular shape, work the first two or three colours from the top towards the bottom, then turn your piece of watercolour card around and work the bottom 1 or 2 colours in the opposite direction.  Stampin’ Up Acrylic blocks are perfect for this technique with their rounded edges.

After laying down the colour, once it was dry, I flicked it with plain water using the inside bit from the spritzer bottle. This lifts the colour where the droplets fall and creates some texture.

Ensure the piece is well dried before trying to emboss. Use the Embossing Buddy to help eliminate stray bits of white embossing powder.  I did find that I still got some flecks of embossing powder that the watercolour paper just seems to want to grab, so I removed as much as I could with a fine paintbrush and just lived with the rest.

And finally to give my embossed piece some extra definition, I gave it a slight shadow with a Smoky Slate Stampin’ Write Marker. Buff off any marker that has gone onto the white embossing with a soft cloth.

And I think this is all this card needs … I resisted the urge to add sequins or extra splatter.

So if you want to see how versatile the “All Things Thanks” stamp set really is, pop on over to Kylie’s International Blog Highlight gallery and take a look around (after you have voted for my card *grin*).

Thanks so much.
xx
Cheryll