Hey my friends, it's Daniel West, again! You thought you were getting away from me. But surprise, I'm guest posting here for my amazing friends at Colorado Craft Company!
Please be sure to comment below to enter for the full April reveal sets shown in this post from Colorado Craft Company. Some other big favorites of mine have sponsored this hop, as well: Catherine Pooler Designs with a $20 gift certificate on each brand ambassador's post and Trinity Stamps with a $25 gift certificate!! There are tons more, too! You can find a full list at Catherine Pooler here or Hedgehog Hollow here. Prizes will be randomly drawn from all the blogs and all the comments. Leave as many comments on as many blogs as you can! Some of the companies are offering discounts and freebies. You can find out who is offering what on each company blog, like a scavenger hunt! Deadline to enter is April 24 for prizes. Winners will be announced on Monday, April 27 on Catherine and Alexandra's blogs.
Today, I want to share the Colorado Craft Company's April release with you. These fantastic Big & Bold bugs are not contagious, but they can produce some infectious smiles! I created three cards using the sets and a technique I call Watercolor Swathing!
It incorporates a clean and simple composition with watercolor, but only coloring a section of the card panel and leaving large portions white.
To begin, wet a swath of a card panel with a wide brush. I only get water on the section I want to color, because the ink will spread wherever the paper is wet. Next, I used re-inkers from Catherine Pooler in three colors: Lime Rickey, Fiesta Blue and Grape Crush, and dropped a bit of ink on three separate acrylic blocks.
Next, with a watercolor brush, I added the green, then the blue and finally the violet to the wet swath. I made sure to mix the green and blue, as well as the blue and violet inks. And I made sure not to mix the violet and the green. This would make a muddy brown color, and I was going for a bright mix of colors.
I repeated this to create three panels and dried them with my heat tool. Next, I stamped out the insects from the April Big & Bold Sets using Midnight Ink.
For the beetle card, I colored in the main image with Copic Markers that match the color in the swath. I added some sprigs in Grape Crush and Midnight Ink. near the bottom. And I spritzed the panel with water to react with the inked swath. Then I stamped the sentiment, BE STILL, from the Brilliant Beetle Stamp Set. For each of the cards, I trimmed the panels down to 4 x 5.25" inches and popped them up on fun foam for dimension. I finished them all off with Jelly Drop Hearts from Trinity Stamps (one of the sponsor of this hop!).
For the ginkgo card, I simply stamped the ginkgo with Midnight Ink three times over the swath. Then I shaded them in with Copic Markers.
Finally, for the dragon fly card, I repeated the steps of the above cards. But for the sentiment, I heat embossed it on black card stock with Alabaster Embossing Powder from Brutus Monroe. Then, I trimmed it down, leaving an angle on the right side for interest. I popped up the strip with foam adhesive and it was finished!
Thank you for joining me today! I hope you have enjoyed a double dose of my cards. I hope you'll give Watercolor Swathing a try. And don't forget to leave a comment below to enter the giveaway!
Your next stop on the hop is Heidi, with Miss Ink Stamps.
To celebrate this hop, Colorado Craft Company has added a new bundle option for the three Big & Bold Stamp Sets for April and is offering free shipping & $8.50 international flat rate shipping! Click here to shop at Colorado Craft Company.
.