Watercoloured Flower

Hi everyone.  Here's another watercolored card from my on-line class.  I really love how this image works with watercoloring.  I've had this stamp for a while, but hadn't found the best way to use it ... now I have :)

I have made this card three times ... won't bother to show you the first version as I used it more for experimenting.  I had just stamped the image, watercolored it and added the sentiment.  I found it a bit boring and tried to add some stenciling after the fact.  Don't add wet after watercoloring!  Even though I was careful, I still had some places where the sentiment ran.  It was a good learning experience :)

Then I made the card above, doing the stenciling first.  I made up my own shimmer spray, mixing rubbing alcohol, drops of SU! smoky slate re-inker and a couple of drops of frost shimmer paint to thicken it and provide the shimmer.  Works great and I've ordered a bunch of the misters to make up sprays in all different colors to have on hand.  The alcohol dries quicker than water and I found it doesn't run as much if I over-spray.

Anyways, I thought the above turned out well, but wanted to try it again with a lighter stencil version.  I also switched up the sentiment to something simpler, so it's basically a CAS'er version of my CAS card above :)  The sentiment was a little too boring, so I underlined it - much better.  Here's the CAS'er version ...

The harlequin stencil is hard to see, but not in real life ... the softness doesn't photograph very well.  And again, the stenciling is shimmery ... so pretty! :)  The softer version looks more like the first card in real life, and the first card has much darker stenciling IRL.

Having fun with this technique of stamping onto dry watercolor paper and then blending with a damp paint brush and will use this technique again and again.

Stamps:  Flower - no name on stamp (Artful Stamper); Sunny Sentiments (first card) by Amy R; A Little Sentimental (second card) by Clearly Besotted)
Paper:  Watercolor (Arches 140 lb. cold press)
Ink:  Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Melon Mambo, Raspberry Ripple, Smoky Slate (SU!); Black (Memento)
Accessories & Tools:  Harlequin Stencil, water mister, rubbing alcohol, Frost White Shimmer Paint (Tsukineko), paint brush