Art Impressions Blog: Watercolor Weekend 10-15-2022

Hello Ai fans!

It's a Watercolor Weekend and we know you're going
to love what our Design Team has in store for you!

Our designers are so talented and always so creative.
Each time I see one of their cards I think to myself, THAT'S my favorite!
Then they make something else and I have a new favorite!

This week we're starting off with Dot's card. She made an adorable
scarecrow adorned with sunflowers. Just PERFECT for fall.

Hello,

So happy to have new Fall stamps from Art Impressions! I've always loved scarecrows so I made this card for the Ai Watercolor Weekend.

To make it, stamp the scarecrow from the 5594 Harvest Scarecrow Set inked in Tombow 565 and 969 onto watercolor paper. I wanted only one bird so only ink one if you don't want both birds. Ink the container the same way and stamp it. Stamp the flowers inked in 969. Color them with 228, 969 and 026. Stamp the grass from the 4051 Foliage Set 1 inked in 228. Color the can with N25 and the handle with 969. Use 565 to make the shadow under the handle. Color the post in 969, the shoes in N25, the overalls with 946 and the gloves and hair with 026. The hat and one patch is colored with the 228. The shirt and other 2 patches are colored with the 555. Use the bleed proof white paint to make the plaid and dots. Color the face with 992 and his cheeks with 946. Color the birds beak with 026 and the bird with the N25. Use the fine point of the Tombow TwinTone brown pen to darken the eyes, nose and mouth of the scarecrow. The sky is 555. Cut it out with the 5062 Rounded Corner die set. The sentiment is from the brand new 5600 Harvest Sentiments Set inked in N25.

Next up we have Tricia who also used the new scarecrow.

Don't you love how two people can use the same stamp and create such different projects?

What do you mean it’s the middle of October, where has the time gone? My project today is fall themed, I know, again! I love this time of year. The colors and everything Fall makes me happy. I used the new Fall Journal stamp sets to create this cute Scarecrow Cart. All I can say is “So. Much. Fun.” I need to retire so I have more time to create! Let’s get into it.

I stamped all of the images first. Starting with the items in front, masking them off and stamping the next image. Exception: the leaves in front of the pumpkins, I didn’t stamp these first even though they in the very front. Instead, I didn’t ink the bottom of the pumpkins so that I could sneak the leaves underneath.

TIP: I stamp all of my elements onto masking paper, cut them out, and arrange them until I am happy with the composition. I ended up using every mask I created. For the scarecrow, I only masked off the feet and pants where the straw would touch.

I started with the pumpkins, masked them off, added the cart, scarecrow and the straw bales. I stamped the small straw bundle twice behind the masked cart. Once it was all stamped, I pulled the color out of the darkest areas to create shadows. Don’t pull too much color unless you want to mute your next layer.

Next, using my palette, I added color to all of the elements. You can add several different colors (drying between layers) to get some nice depth. I added the grass details, a farm background and sky to finish it off. Using my twintones, I added some darker shadows. Lastly, I signed and dated.

I am loving this season and I know I’ll be getting into Christmas Cards (I have an extensive list) and snow soon! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and thank you so much for spending some time with us!

Our final project is a gorgeous slimline winter card from Karen.

Hello Ai Watercolour fans!

I have a wintry slimline card today, which you could easily recreate with just a few stamp sets.

I cut out several hillside shapes from scrap paper and used them as masks to do some ink blending. For the top layer, I used yellow and orange inks to blend a setting sun, and then used a lilac and a blue ink to do the sky around it. With the second mask in place, I coloured the two houses from 5370 - WC Village Set in N55, and used my stamp positioner to make them look like they are 'just over the hill', then softly blended ink to hilight the hill edges, and did the same for the bottom hill. I used the trees from 5010 - WC Tree Set 1, 5372 - WC Mini Foliage and 4960 - WC Fir Trees Set in #177/249, and stamped them with masks in place, to appear over the hills. I used the tree top from the Fir Trees Set to stamp the large foreground tree, and added a trunk and shadow under it. I added snow to the house roofs and painted them in using #969/856. The deer from 5427 - WC Silhouette Deer where stamped in #N25, and the sentiment from 5566 Christmas Sentiments was stamped in black ink and decorated with a few tiny sparkles. The panel was cut with 5463 Slimline Dies and mounted on a dark green panel with 3D foam adhesive. You can see where I got my card inspiration here!