April Technique Class: Watercolors & Chipboard

We had a lot of fun last night making cards in my monthly technique class. I'm just so grateful for this group. All the ladies are so nice and eager to learn new techniques. This month we did a litte watercoloring and used chipboard to make a simple "non-girly" card.

This card above uses the "misting with markers" technique. This can be considered a watercoloring technique because it involves the use of water with the ink to create a flowy watercolor image. For this technique you need to use a solid image stamp. The first step is to color the rubber on the stamp with various colors of markers. Then spray a couple of times with a water spray bottle. Finally, you can stamp your image on cardstock and you'll notice how the colors flow into eachother and sometimes fade a little bit in places due to the water.

You can also use this technique with watercolor crayons. Same idea: color on the rubber with the crayons, spray, then stamp. I've found the the colors are more vibrant when you use markers, but both effects are just lovely.

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Live your Dream
Inks: Cameo Coral, Garden Green, Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip, Versamark
Papers: Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, White, Afternoon Tea DS Paper
Accessories: Soft Sky Ribbon
Notes: The white cardstock and Afternoon Tea paper are sponged on the edges with chocolate chip ink.

This next card is a traditional watercoloring card using shimmery white cardstock. The shimmer doesn't show up too well in the photo, but I just love that litte sparkle that remains across the entire piece even after coloring the image in. For this card we watercolored with watercolor crayons and blender pens. I typically use aquapainters only when I watercolor on watercolor paper. For this project I just added a little color here and there and then used the blender pens to spread the color around.

Stamps: Summer by the Sea
Inks: Stazon Black, Garden Green, Tempting Turquoise
Papers: Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Shimmery White, Black
Accessories: Paper piercer
Notes: The butterfly was stamped on shimmery white paper using turquoise ink, cut out, and adhered with a mini glue dot. The edges of the Soft Sky were pierced along the length of both sides.
This last card is a very simple "non-girly" card that highlights an easy way to use chipboard to complete your card. The background was created using a cuttlebug dry embossing folder which I think is so busy that you don't need much more to complete the card.

Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
Inks: Chocolate Chip
Papers: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories: Chipboard Star, Orange grosgrain ribbon