Thursday, January 29, 2015

A Happy Thing

Woohoo! I've got three days off in a row so I want to make the most of them. I was home most of the day today, working in my craft room as well as multi-tasking laundry, dishwasher loading/unloading, making dinner, and other chores.

I started the day by preparing my materials for my stamping group that meets tomorrow night. With that out of the way, I was free to play. It's always a happy thing when I get to play in my craft room so what better stamp set to work with today than A Happy Thing!

I just love the little bird from this set and he is certainly making the rounds on Pinterest! I had stamped him on Whisper White with Memento Tuxedo Black ink days ago, in preparation for coloring him with Blendabilities.

Prior to that, I had created a watercolor background, planning to use it with the Bokeh Technique. It was created by first taping down the edges of the watercolor paper with washi tape and then spritzing it liberally with water.

I snap a photo to remind me what colors I used to create the watercolor.

I started by using three Ink Refills–Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, and the now retired Gumball Green. In separate containers I had added about three drops of each color to ten drops of water. I used my Aqua Painter to drop ink onto the paper in random areas.

As I worked, I sometimes blotted, sometimes sprayed more water onto the paper, and sometimes re-inked a spot on the paper to make it darker. I was liking what I was creating but it needed more depth. I decided to add Mossy Meadow into the mix and that was the answer!

I left it to dry while I was away at work and then removed the washi tape.

In the end, I decided not to add bokeh to this watercolor because I liked the organic quality to it and thought it would work well for a leafy background for the little bird.

When I started to color the little bird with my lightest Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities marker, I found that it had dried out! I was not a happy camper but I got ahold of Demo Support at Stampin' Up! and they have a new set on the way out to me.

Because I had ruined the stamped bird with the dried out marker, I changed tactics and decided to stamp the bird on acetate using Stazon Black ink. After the ink was dry, I colored with my markers on the back of the bird. With the bird completed, I turned back to the watercolor background.

I trimmed down the paper to 4 x 5" and inked the edges using Always Artichoke. I used Fuse Fast to adhere it to a Soft Suede matte.

I stamped the sentiment from the Simply Wonderful stamp set using Stazon Black ink. This stamp set can be obtained for free during Sale-a-Bration if you place an order of $60 or more.

I used one of the Square Framelits to cut out the bird and attached it with glue dots to the watercolor paper. To cover the glue dots, I used Candy Dots from the Regals Collection.

I added a piece of the now retired Soft Suede Taffeta Ribbon and wound a double strand of Gold Baker's Twine around it, finishing with a knot in the front.

Finally, I added this matte to a Mossy Meadow card base. To give the bird a bit of character, I added a Rhinestone eye.