Sunday 14 February 2016

Scrapbooking Top 50 February Mood Board Inspiration

As a design team member at Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia I was excited to be able to use my favourite colour to inspire you all with our great February Challenge. Well for those who know me it won't be a surprise that my favourite colour is 'Orange', this time I thought instead of making a primarily orange page I would use my fav colour as a technique teaching opportunity.  I have been experimenting with watercolours and how the different ways the paint react in different ways to paper and water. My daughter rang me the other day and asked if I could make her a couple of 21st birthday cards so I thought this was a great opportunity to share how I made my fav colour orange a centre piece using watercolour paints.


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Items used:
  • 2 pieces of White card cardstock
  • Molli & Mimi heart stamp kit. I used one of the large ones.
  • StazOn Ink for stamping and edging. (You could use 'Black soot' Tim Holtz Distress Ink for edging only not stamping as it is not waterproof another option would be Archival Ink as it is also waterproof).
  • Watercolour paints - brights (You can buy cheap ones but to get vibrant colours you need to high levels of pigmentation and these are normally a little more expensive)
  • Small Spray bottle filled with water.
  • Paint brush- medium size.
  • Palette tray may come in handy
  • Little Birdie Angel wings
  • 'Miss Empire' Kaisercraft 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" paper pad- die and paper
  • Chipboard key 'Little Birdie' 
  • Chipboard numbers
  • Twine - A friend of mine gave me a great idea; tie your twine around a gesso container to get the perfect circle that will stay that way, the bigger the container the bigger the circles. Do several and they will be ready when ever you want one.
  • White cheese cloth
  • Glossy Accents adhesive.
  • "Live in the moment" stamp from Kaszazz
  • DecoArt media white crackle paint 
  • Small piece of cardboard to place behind the heart and quote to give more depth to the look. 
  • If you want to put an age onto your card: you will need chipboard numbers, white gesso, MicaColor 'Vintage' Sparkling Mica and Pigment Watercolour paints


Many of items or similar can be purchased over at Scrapbooking Fantasies online store and to find out different lessons and product they have pop over to their blog/site by clicking on the link I have placed on their icon near the top of this page.



1. Fold 1 piece of card stock in half and crease edge to make card. The other is for stamping your heart on.
2. Cut chosen coloured paper for background and cut a piece leaving enough to leave a border of white.
3. Edge card, paper and die cut with Black StazOn / Archival ink / Distress Ink.
4. Stamp your chosen heart and quote stamp using StazOn / Archival ink, don' cut out at this stage.  
5. Paint the key with White crackle paint quite thickly and put aside to dry. It will develop a cracked effect as it dries.
6. Now for the watercolour fun:
  • Prime your brush with paint by adding lots of water to your paint and adding to your paint brush.
  • Remember water is your friend to allow it to spread you need lots of water.
  • Spray your stamped heart with a fine mist of water and begin to apply your paint in dabbling motions.

  • Have fun experimenting, add more water on your brush and spray again if you need it.
  • If you have large puddles of colours use a tissue or wetone to carefully absorb some of the moisture.

  • I painted red first and whilst wet I flicked yellow and orange onto the top so it would bleed to make my mottled orange effect. 





7. Cut out the quote and back with patterned paper from paper pad.
8. Cut a piece of cheese cloth that will fit onto the card behind the heart, distress it by pulling it out of shape and removing threads along the edge until you're happy with the look.
9. When dry cut out the heart. 
10. Assemble the card: using  Glossy accents or double sided tape connect green paper to white card and add die cut to the corner. 
11. Using a strong glue such as Glossy accents glue wings to either side of the heart, then stick down the cheese cloth, twine, quote, piece of cardboard and then the heart. lastly the key. Leave to dry.
12. If you want to put a number on it use chipboard numbers, prime the surface with white gesso, dry and then paint with a thick coat of  'Silver' metallic watercolour paints.




 Hope I have inspired you to try watercolours in your art work. it's fun and so unexpected as water colours do tend to have a mind of their own some times. Just remember that be patient watercolours take time. If you try and mix too many or the wrong colours together too quickly you could end up with a muddle puddle instead of a beautiful mix of colours. Most times it is really important to dry your work well before adding another colour. Time is also a watercolours best friend. Heat guns will provide a very different effect compared to drying it naturally as well. Thanks  for popping over to my blog, pop over to Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia blog or their facebook page and be inspired by others with fantastic ideas and techniques.