Watercolor wash

I’m late to the Flowering Desert party, and I’m sorry that’s the case. It’s such a versatile set, the images are charming, and it’s really easy to use. There’s not a whole lot of desert here on Maui – that’s my story and I’m standing by it.

Maui Stamper Stampin' Up! Flowering Desert

Stamps: Flowering Desert (Retiring from Occasions 2019)
Color Palette: Shimmery White, Basic Black, Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Mint Macaron, Granny Apple Green, Pool Party, Shaded Spruce, Lovely Lipstick, Gorgeous Grapefruit, Calypso Coral (did I forget one?)
Accessories: Shimmery White Paper, Aqua Painter, Paper Snips, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Silicone Craft Sheet

Crystal and I had a crafty mini-retreat recently and we really dove into this. We used as many colors as we possibly could, but I got a little carried away with my paper snips.

We CASEd Tami Hewlett, beginning with her gorgeous background. Her technique is to drop little puddles of color onto a silicone craft sheet and smoosh Shimmery White or Watercolor paper onto the sheet. We LOVED the effect with Shimmery White! Please stop by her blog and give her the love she deserves for this great concept.

This is a really playful set! The fussy cutting isn’t all that fussy, and if you tend to make extras “just in case” as I do, you’ll have enough for another card.

But HURRY. This sweet set is guaranteed to be available only through May 24, 2019. Shop HERE.

I’m not a classically trained artist – SURPRISE – but I pay attention to trends and try to pick up simple techniques. One thing I’ve learned is that watercolor paper makes a big difference when you are, well, watercoloring. A couple of weeks ago I played with watercolor wash:

Stamps: Flowering Fields, Tin of Cards
Color Palette: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight
Accessories: Aquapainter, Stampin’ Write markers

I started with the watercolor paper and played with the wash. If you look closely at the card above, you’ll see that I held it upright before the water had soaked in, and it created a little river of yellow through the blue. Color theory: yellow + blue = green.

When I trimmed the panels down to make cards, the color was too close to the edge. That just means I’ll have to make more in order to try again.

The sentiment on this card is from the Wetlands stamp set, and I used my Uniball White Gel pen to add some accents to those flowers. These are simple cards – you could make a batch in one afternoon. I like to make them without sentiments and set them aside until I need them. I can customize with the sentiment and font that matches my purpose.

Experiment a little! It’s just paper {wink}.