Watercolored Coffee Cups

If you've never watercolored a stamped image, you are missing out on a very relaxing, satisfying experience. This card came into being because I kept a piece of leftover watercolor paper from the last card I made using the Morning Cup set. This time, instead of letting the coffee ring stand on its own, it became a sort of border for my main image, a stack of coffee cups.

I stamped them in Early Espresso classic ink and immediately applied Clear Embossing Powder to it so that I could create a waterproof image that wouldn't smear. SU! carries a Brown Staz-On ink, which is waterproof by design, but I don't have it, so I tried this to see if it would work, since liquid on watercolor paper doesn't absorb immediately. It worked!

Then I chose my color palette. When I started as a demonstrator with SU!, I only had the earthtone color family, now called the Regals Collection. i am drawn to these colors in fall, for obvious reasons. I used Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, and Old Olive. I squeezed the felt pads and transferred the ink to the lid and used the finer of the two tips of the Aqua Painter to do my painting. I also created a bit of a grounding shadow around the cups using River Rock.

I mounted the piece on River Rock because the card base was also in that color. Not sure why I chose that when Early Espresso was the obvious choice. It just seemed too dark. I crafted a matting that reused the colors in my palette. They were just scraps and I like the DD piece in particular. The piece of hardware store twine adds a nice touch too.

Initially, I watercolored this percolator for use on the outside, but I couldn't figure out a way to incorporate it. I put in on the inside as a way to extend the card's motif. While I usually choose to color objects in a way that reflects the way they look in real life, I let myself play with this.

Now to figure out which one of my coffee loving friends to send this to...

A Rose by Any Other Name...

There's a technique that's wildly popular in stamping blogland right now, and it's called watercoloring with reinkers. Basically, you stamp a line art image that lots of white space, emboss it, spritz it heavily with water, and color it using reinker ink and an aquapainter.

This card was made using this technique, which I thank Crystal French and Patty Bennett for making famous. The most important ingredient, besides adequate water, is Shimmery White card stock, which I finally remembered to order (after forgetting at least 3 times in the past 2 months!). There's a great tutorial that Patty has posted, and I won't attempt to reinvent the wheel. The only caveat I would make is that you need to have pooling water and be patient as you add color to get the depth you want. I'm going to work with my stampers on Sunday with it, so it'll truly be learning together.

This is a gate fold, which is always hard to photograph because it has to be held closed! Pardon my fingers...See my archive for the scoring specifics. The color scheme is Real Red, Only Orange, and Summer Sun with Whisper White card stock.

I'm supremely pooped from two huge weeks at work, so thanks for your patience in the days that have passed between posts. I value you and love it when you comment.