With Love Watercolor

Hello crafty people!  I decided to make a more traditional Valentine's Day card for my sister and brother in law.  There's nothing like a little clean out of your supplies to get the creative juices flowing!  

This smallish card started out as a store bought invitation, which I probably bought at a yardsale for the envelopes.  I figured I might as well use the actual card, too, so I started by cutting some card stock and papers to size, distressing them with my scissors and gluing them onto the existing invitation, which I gave a quick coat of gesso and Worn Lipstick Distress paint on the edges.

I splattered on some watered down watercolor crayon at this point and let it dry while I worked on my top layer.  Once dry, I swiped on some Ranger Multi Matte Medium and sprinkled with Martha Stewart Iridescent tinsel glitter (This was one source of inspiration I unearthered and had forgotten in my Closet stash. This will be my first time using this product.)

I was inspired by Suzz of Suzz's Stamping Spot with her watercolor hearts, so I went digging through my watercolor supplies and found these unused watercolor crayons. If you visit her blog to see her beautiful cards, you will see the inspiration is pretty clear. At first I tried watercolor pencils, but I didn't get the super watery look I was going for. I  cannot wait to get my hands on Tim's new Distress crayons, and have some on pre-order at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

For the focal panel, I started with heavy weight watercolor paper, stamped a Stampin' Up Script image with Watering Can Archival ink, and edged the card with watercolor crayon. I spritzed with Pink Gumball Perfect Pearl Spray Mist and then water and swirled that around to get some drips and puddles of color.  Once dry, I placed the negative from Tim's Heartfelt Bigz die over and traced around the inside of three of the hearts, and again spritzed with water.  I dried this with a heat gun to push the color around a little and when fully dry, went back in with the stencil I had made and added more crayon, blending some with a water brush.

Next I did some embossing inspired by Nancy's (of My Tattered Treasures) method of embossing. Be sure to visit her blog, where no matter what the weather outside you will feel like it's a breezy sunny day!

 When the panel was completely dry, I used  Ranger Transparent Matte Texture Paste and several  different cheapo stencils to emboss some tiny hearts.  While the paste was wet, I sprinkled on micro beads and the tinsel glitter.  Once dry, I went around my embossed hearts with Festive Berries Distress marker and a water pen  to make the tiny hearts pop.

I finished this Valentine with a Tim Holtz Simple Sayings sentiment in Jet Black Archival and splattered on some coordinating watered down watercolor crayon. This is one of those cards that looks much better in real life due to the shimmer and sparkle that is so elusive on camera. I purposefully made my card flat, so I could post it from my home, and hopefully it will arrive in time.

I would like to enter my Valentine into the following inspiring challenges:

-Frilly and Funkie Enjoy Your Embossing My embossing comes in the form of hearts embossed with texture paste.

-Mixed Media Monthly Challenge # 21 Glitter

-Country View Challenges-February-Make Your Own Background

-The Artistic Stamper-February Creative Challenge-HeART Art

-Mixed Media Place-Creative Gym # 16-New Beginnings Trying something new with watercolors in the form of crayons, using a few new to me products.

Thank you for stopping by today and for your awesome comments!  I read and appreciate each and every one of them!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily