Hello, and Welcome to Watercolor Weekend! I always love painting the animals that are in the Art Impressions line. There are definitely some cute ones, yes mice are cute! LOL! (Well they are!) I also love all things rustic, which is where I went with my first card.
I started out with a piece of watercolor paper and stamped in the pitcher from 5123 WC Decorative Jar Set, with Distress Ink in Pumice Stone, I also used this on the pot and mouse. Being that this set is rubber, I stamped off twice first. I then masked the pitcher before stamping in the 4869 WC Small Container Set, I also stamped this one off twice before using my stamp positioner to put on my project. I then added the mouse from 5599 Mini Mice & Squirrel Set, this one I only stamped off once and also used the positioner. For the pitcher I used a mix of 565 and 969 to put in the base color leaving a highlight in the middle, then a put a light wash of 249 in for a bit of patina. 947 is my go to for rust, and I put this in various places, darkening some spots. If you want a more deteriorated look add a bit of 969 to make it look like the rust is eating through the metal. I also used 947 on the little pot and shaded with 969, this was also used to create the crack in the rim. For the little mouse I started with N79 as the base and shaded with N57, I then added a light wash of 969 to get the variation in his coat. I used a black micron on his eye and added a bit on his nose. I then put in some 177 on the ground, darkening it around the pitcher and pot and I used 403 for the sky.
I masked off the pitcher again to put in the foliage and flowers. I started with 5919 Long Stem Floral Set and my stamp positioner. I also stamped these in Pumice Stone and stamped off twice. I then used masking fluid on the flowers because I wanted them to stand out when I was done. 6055 Water of Life Set has some long grasses that I used in 192, using my brush I added curls to the ends of some of the blades. I then put in the long purple flowers from 4052 Flower Set 1 in 676. I added a small leaf sprig from 5007 WC Foliage Set 3 darker towards the base and stamped the lighter ones towards the top. I also added them on either side of the pot and pitcher in 177. I blended some of the foliage and flowers a bit to fill in the white spaces, adding extra color as needed so the Bleed Proof White would show. I then rubbed off the liquid mask and put 055 and 025 in the centers of the 3 flowers and added 407 to the petals and 126 to the leaves. I then added the BPW in various sizes. I matted my card base with 5939 Fairy Garden Paper Pack and cut out a purple frame with a die from my stash. I traced this die over my image, on both the inside and outside so I knew where I needed to cut this down to fit behind the frame and glued these 2 pieces together before mounting on my card.
For my second card I tried channeling my inner Michelle, IYKYK. If you don’t know, Michelle H. is an extremely talented artist and has a knack for whimsy. I came up with this idea from a picture I had seen on Pinterest, if you ever struggle for ideas, the internet can be a good source of inspiration. With the exception of the foliage, I used Distress Ink in Pumice stone, stamping each one off first before stamping onto my watercolor paper. 5465 WC Cliffs Set was used first, leaving the top back line off. I then used a stamp positioner to put in the cat from 4873 WC Cats Set, and the left wings of the butterfly from 5200 Butterfly Set. The 4th from largest in the 5063 Rectangle A2 Double Stitched Dies was used as a guide around my project. I started with the rocks using a mix of 565 and 969. I then added in touches of 969, 565, 526, 676, and 725. For the side of the cliff I used 969, darkening areas for dimension. For the ground and top of the cliff I used 177, darkening the areas that would be in shadow.
For the cat I shaded her with 565, and used a black micron on the eyes and nose. Adding a bit of 772 in the ear with some Bleed Proof White for a little bit of hair coming up in front of the ear. I played around quite a bit with colors for the wings, I ended up using 850 for the base, contouring with 703, and shading with 725. I also used 725 to create a bit of scrollwork in the wing that I went over with a bit of Wink of Stella, I also added this to the 2 purple areas in the rocks. I added in 403 for the sky, and then used 5007 WC Foliage Set 3 for both the vine and the grasses, both in 177.
I touched the leaves with a damp brush to soften and pulled some of the color up out of the grass. I erased my guidelines and used the same die to cut out my project. I matted this with a dark burgundy cardstock that I also used to mat the piece I ran through an embossing folder. I matted my card base with paper from 6082 Bible Journaling S1 Paper Pack. I popped up the image with foam tape over the embossed panel, to finish off my card. I hope you enjoyed my projects today, thank you for joining me. Until next time. Create….Share….Inspire!
