Make It Monday: WOS + Distress Markers = Watercolor Effect

Happy Monday. I hope you all had a great weekend. I had a great weekend spending it with Jerry, Carter and friends playing in the last bit of snow along with other social outings. It went too fast! I'm ready to get on with this week as next week brings Spring Break. Here are some pics of our fun weekend!

Carter always 'hamming it up' for the camera

My friend's twins, Alexis and Aubrey. Love these girls!

How many 5 year olds can you fit in a sled?

Carter lending a helping hand to Aubrey

I have a great tutorial to share with you today. If you recall, I told you of my love for the watercolor trend here.  I am seeing watercolors everywhere. I love the look. I also love the fact that there are so many techniques to achieve the watercolor look. For example, distress markers. I admit....I own ONE distress marker and it happens to be the January color, cracked pistachio. I never took the time to invest in the cost that come along with these markers.....but after playing around with the ONE color I have and some clear Wink of Stella, I am now convinced I want ALL of the colors.



Let's get started.

Materials used:

• Watercolor paper (basic, nothing fancy)
• Distress marker (I used cracked pistachio)
• Distress Ink (I used cracked pistachio)
• Taylored Expressions "Pocketful of Sunshine" stamp and die set
• Clear Wink of Stella
• Queen & Co Yellow Epoxy Dots
• Black Ink (I used archival)
• Patterned paper (I used Doodlebug "Hello Sunshine" 6x6 paper pad)
• Googly eyes
• Pink Marker (any brand)
• Stitched Rectangle die (I used Memory Box "stitched rectangle layers")
• White cardstock

How to:
• Die cut stitched rectangle die from the watercolor paper and the "pocket" from the "Pocketful of Sunshine" set from pink patterned paper. I used the pink tonal polka dot.

• Position the pocket and "oh hoppy day" sentiment on the rectangle. This will give you a rough placement for your frog that you will stamp. If needed, you can do tiny pencil marks. I just eyeballed it.

• Stamp the frog with black archival ink (or any permanent ink) that will appear to be peeking out from over the pocket. Also stamp the frog again on a scrap piece of watercolor paper.
• With your pink marker, color the tongue and belly

• With your distress marker (brush tip), partially color the feet, head and body. For mine, I colored everything from the left side leaving white towards the middle and right. Color the feet of the 2nd frog you stamped on the scrap piece of watercolor paper. Use the same technique and color only the left side of the feet.

• Shake your Clear Wink of Stella well. I can't stress this enough. If needed, you can practice on a scrap paper to see if the glitter has mixed well. If it appears silver, it needs to be shaken again. Where you colored with your distress marker on the frog, use the clear WOS to drag the color towards your white areas. Use clean, straight strokes (not circles).  I just love the look of this and the EASE of getting this look. You get the watercolor effect as well as the shimmer that comes with the WOS. It's a win-win. 

 

• Place the pink pocket back on the card for position and stamp "oh hoppy day" sentiment with cracked pistachio distress ink at the bottom. (I removed my pocket before stamping)

• Pop dot pocket. Cut out feet from the spare frog image and adhere to the top of the pocket. 
  
• Cut a card base from white cardstock. I cut mine at 5 1/2 x 8 1/2. This will create a side fold card
• I used the yellow tonal houndstooth patterned paper from "hello sunshine" and cut it at 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. Adhere to top of the card base
• With a blending tool, blend a little of the cracked pistachio onto the rectangle die. 
• Adhere rectangle to the center of the yellow paper
• Adhere googly eyes and place yellow epoxy dots around the frog and sentiment to finish the card
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Thanks for stopping by today. Now that we are in a new month, that means it's time for a new FLASH CHALLENGE. You can see what we did last month here. I will be sharing all the new projects with you this Friday. I cannot wait! I always love a good challenge....especially one for a time crunch.

Miss Tracy, LBH designers and staff are also prepping the shop for their Spring Open House. You won't want to miss out on the project reveals, make n take and all new spring products this coming Saturday!!!!

Have a great week!!!

Nat