Grateful Heart Watercolor!

Working in the IT field, I have a natural affinity to black and white - things work or don't work.  The creative side of my brain does not come natural as I really have to work at it. So when it comes to watercolor, I find it more than daunting. However, I LOVE a lot of the beautiful art I see with watercolors, so I have been bound and determined to try my hand at it.

Here is a card I made with some very simple watercolor. I discovered two things:  first, I found that I do not need to spend a bundle on watercolor paints to be satisfied with the results, and second, I found the process very liberating! For this card in particular, I especially like the disparity between the clean lines and texture of the embossing and gold mat with the free-handed nature of the watercolor and texture of the watercolor paper. So if I can do this, maybe it will inspire those of you who struggle like I do.

To make this card, I stamped the foliage frame from the Grateful Heart - Scrapbooking stamp set with VersaMark ink on watercolor paper and embossed it with Ranger Princess Gold Embossing Powder. I taped it down to my craft sheet and wet a large portion of the paper around the edges with a large, flat brush and some clear water.  After choosing a warm yellow, orange, and red from my watercolor paints, I began dropping color with my brush around the perimeter of my paper, alternating between the three colors and doing a slight bit of blending.  I then left it to air dry.

While it was drying, I used the "So Grateful" sentiment from the stamp set by stamping it on VersaMark ink on a scrap of Black Cardstock, masking off the "So" from the stamp.  I then embossed again with Ranger Princess Gold Embossing Powder. I repeated this process using a leaf from the stamp set and then trimming it to the edge of the image.

At this point the watercolored piece was dry so I took my brush and using the same three colors, I spattered some paint onto the piece.  While letting this dry again, I took the time to prepare a piece of Gold Foil Paper for matting as well as cut a card base from Black Cardstock.

To assemble, I trimmed the edges of the watercolored piece and simply adhered it to the Gold Foil Paper and then to the black card base.  I added the sentiment strip to the card using Foam Tape and adhered the embossed leaf to the left of the sentiment.

Questions?  Leave me a comment and let me know your experiences with watercolor!