Saturday, August 13, 2016

Watercolor cards using distress ink

I love to watercolor using my Ranger distress inks.  When I use watercolor paints or pencils I'm very rarely happy with what I've done. I can't quite get the shading right or I've used to much water and the colors run. I guess I just have to keep trying and I know I'll get the hang of it, eventually. However I love using my distress markers and inks to watercolor, I almost feel like a pro. The two cards I made today are both made using this technique and I do love the way they turned out. I also have to say that I love using my Misti, (for those of you who don't know what it is, you can check it out at SimonSaysStamp.com) it makes stamping a breeze.  

Card # 1


Products used:
PB #40-428 Scented Beauty
HA #CL401 Tapestry Background
IO #CL114 Sympathy Sentiments
Ranger distress markers and inkpads ( Spun Sugar & Forest Moss)
Ranger Archival ink (Black)
Ranger watercolor paper
Inkadinkado Masking Paper
American Crafts twine
Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen
Clarity brushes
My Sweet Petunia, Inc. Misty


I cut my paper to 41/4 x51/2 and placed it in the corner of the Misti securing it with magnets. Then I positioned my stamp and closed the lid, sticking the stamp to it. I opened the Misti and used my distress markers to color the stamp, and closed the Misti. I did this twice. I removed my paper, leaving the stamp in passion in the Misty. Using a paintbrush and a small amount of water, (I used the back of my hand to remove the excess water from my brush) I drew the ink out to the edges of each petal one at a time until done, repeating with the second flower and the leaves. When I finished, I placed my paper back into my Misti and inked the stamp once more very lightly and stamped the image again to add a subtle edge. Then I cleaned and removed the stamp and repositioned my paper to the center of the Misti. Using the masking paper I stamped the roses again and the fussy cut the mask out and placed over my finished image. I used removable adhesive on the back of my paper to keep it in place, since I was going to stamp over the whole thing. I positioned my background stamp over my paper and closed the Misti so it would stick. Then I inked it using the black Archival ink. I stamped it and there were some missing spots so I inked the stamp again and stamped it again, success. I love my Misti. I cut my paper to 41/4 x 53/8 then using my Clarity brushes and some Spun Sugar inked the edges, and wrapped the twine around the left side crossing it and knotting it. I stamped the Sentiment on some white card stock using black Archival ink and matted it on black card stock and adhered it to the top right of the panel. Then I adhered the panel to a black card.

Card#2

Products used:
PB #40-312 Sunny Pair
PB #30-358 Happy Snippets
Spellbinders #S5-218 A2 Devine Eloquence
Ranger Distress Ink ( Rusty Hinge, Squeezed Lemonade, Peeled Paint, Ground Espresso, Vintage Photo and Bundled Sage)
Ranger watercolor paper 
My Sweet Petunia, Inc. Misti
I did everything the same for this card up till the background stamp. Instead of using a background stamp I used some Squeezed Lemonade and water to go around the flowers leaving some white at the top and bottom. Then I cut it out using my spellbinders die. I used  Bundled Sage around the whole frame. I stamped my sentiment, "a little bit of sunshine for you" and used dimensional tape to adhere it to a white card. I didn't like that it was so white so I added just a touch of Squeezed Lemonade around the edges of the card.
As I mentioned at the top of the page my Favorite Technique is water coloring with Distress Inks.  
I will be entering these cards in:









14 comments:

  1. Two beautiful floral creations and lovely colours as well, many thanks for sharing with us at Penny Black and More challenge.

    B x

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  2. Lovely cards! I especially like the first one...all the stamping looks fantastic! Thanks for joining us at Little Red Wagon.

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  3. Thank you JanR, that's my favorite too.

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  4. Two beautiful creations, loving those gorgeous flowers and your coloring turned out beautifully! I need to add a few more of the Distress markers to my collection!
    Thank you so much for sharing with us this month at Penny Black and More!

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  5. wow these are so elegant and beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing with us at Penny Black & More.
    Lynn x

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  6. Hi Karen
    Fabulous cards...
    Thanks for joining us at PBSC this month
    Hugs Sylvie x

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  7. 2 wonderful cards & your watercoloring looks professional! So glad you joined us at PBSC!

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  8. Lovely cards.
    Thank you for sharing at Penny Black & More @ Allsorts August challenge and good luck x Susan x

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