Wooden Gate by Karen Day

Hello Ai fans!

I'm starting my 2017 posts with some watercolours!  For the last couple of years, my New Year's Crafting resolution has been to watercolour more - and I've actually stuck to it!  I own quite a few of the Ai Watercolour sets, and really love pulling them out and painting all afternoon...  Here are a couple of creations that I made using one of the Watercolor Minis: Wooden Gate (Sku # 4762):

 I used an assortment of Tombow & Marvy markers by colouring directly onto my stamps, and then softened the lines with a damp paintbrush.  I used my Gansai Tambei watercolour palette to add a bit of a wash to the sky & background.  Here's a lavender version:

 I added in a couple of stamps from the W/C Foliage Set 1 (Sku #4051) and the small flowers from W/C Flower Set (Sku #4052) to finish my picture off.  You can find all of the Ai watercolor sets here.  Happy painting!

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Old Barn Watercolor by Karen Day

Hello Ai fans!

I had fun painting and distressing today, using the newly released Old Barn Mini Set (Sku #4807)

which is one of the Watercolor Minis collection:

 I love this!  The set includes the barn, the tree, and the fence stamps, so I added in the tiny leaves stamp that is part of Covered Bridge Mini Set (Sku #4808), the tiny grass from WC Foliage Set 1 (Sku #4051) and the Teeny Tiny Flowers from WC Flower Set (Sku #4052)

 After my painting was complete, I grunged up all the edges a little, and sponged some soft brown ink on.  I used my edge distressor to tear up the edges a little, and got out some sandpaper as well.  I added the pewter brads to the corners to make it look like the picture was tacked up on the wall.  Happy stamping!

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Southwest Watercolors by Karen Day

Hello Ai fans!

I pulled out my Tombow markers and the new Ai Watercolor Mini - Southwest (Sku #4763) recently and painted up a storm!  So today I have two cards to share with you from my paintfest:

 Both images are quite similar, I changed up the colours of the foliage a little, and added a bit of a design to one of the pots.  I used my Tombow markers to colour directly onto the stamps, and after using my damp paintbrush to soften the lines, I went back in and added some colour by scribbling the markers onto my palette, and picking up the colour with my brush.  It doesn't show much in the photos, but there is a lovely pale turquoise sky around the plants.

For this card, the painted image is adhered to the card base, and the patterned paper is popped up on 3D foam dots - so the image is recessed inside the circle cut out.

 There are all kinds of Ai Watercolor videos on our You Tube channel done by both Bonnie & Kendra that give step by step instructions on using the wonderful Ai Watercolor stamp sets  You can find the one that is using the Southwest stamp set here.

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Blooming Birdhouse by Karen Day

Hello Ai fans!

I'm back with another of the Ai Watercolor Mini sets: Blooming Birdhouse (Sku #4603).  As always, I painted several of the images and made up a few different card styles.  Here is a 5 1/2" square card:

 The next one is much smaller, I used the wonderful Scallop Easel Die (Sku #4700) to cut out my base, which makes for a 3 3/4" x 5" card.  I used pop dots on my matted oval to give it a bit more dimension, and added some tiny pearls to the oval and the scalloped edge.

**Watercolouring tip!!  On the easel card, I used my #4 paintbrush for the sky, which is what I used to soften the lines of my stamped images, and even though I like the end result, I thought that the sky came out a bit "scribbly".  So for the square card, I tried something different.  After I stamped my birdhouse, and before I added any leaves or flowers, I used a large brush to add a pale blue wash all around it.  The larger brush gave a softer, smoother sky - and then I stamped my flowers and foliage over top of it.  It's a little hard to see in the photo, because the sky is quite pale, but I loved this effect!

The set comes with the birdhouse, three flowers and a small leafy sprig; I also added a flower stamp from the WC Flower Set (Sku #4052) that I stamped to make my blue Lupines.

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