I think I mentioned that I recently got hooked on watercolouring and I did a fair bit of it at the crop last weekend. I initially thought that the bird in the A Happy Thing set was a kingfisher but reading Brian King’s site I found that he’d done his research and found that it’s a bee eater. That makes a whole lot more sense since the beak was too short for a kingfisher. The bee eater is an almost unbelievably brightly coloured bird and comes in quite a few colour ways. I watercolored with google images at my side!

I cut a quarter sheet of the watercolour paper and stamped the adorable bird in stazon black. I have found that I’m more successful watercolouring (and I’m definitely a novice, but it’s so much fun, you have to try it) if there is not much water in the aquapainter or everything gets a bit too soggy and my colours run out of control. I started with pacific point, watering it down quite a bit and then moved onto the pumpkin pie. I then used old olive for the head and upper chest, blending the colour into some of the pacific point lower down in an attempt to mimic real life. I used some memento black to darken the beak, tail and stripe around the eye and on the neck. Once I’d finished this, it was crying out for the sentiment that comes with the set, so I inked that up in memento black as well. I confess that I’m not fond of the stazon black and only use it when strictly necessary due to needing to use a different cleaner. I mounted the watercolour paper on a skinny black mat using fast fuse since the paper is much more sturdy than our regular card stock. This then went on an old olive base. I lined the envelope using the now retiring backgrounds DSP. I can only hope that there will be new backgrounds DSP in different patterns because they are so wonderful for envelope lining.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

This is the first card that I have really watercoloured – as in, I have coloured in the card rather than making a background. It is really fun and easier than I expected although I’m not kidding myself that I’ve mastered this. I will definitely need to get a book on watercolouring. But it is more gratifying than any colouring that I did with the blendabilities.

I used a mask that I’d previously snipped out so that I could have three lemons since the stamp only has one. I stamped the images in stazon black ink so that the lines wouldn’t run. Using the aquapainter is easier for me if I don’t have too much water in it – otherwise I seemed to be getting a bit of a lake on the paper. I coloured in the leaves using a drop wild wasabi re-inker which I put on a clear block. I put the brush into the drop and swirled it around a bit on the block so that I was diluting it and then checked the colour on scrap paper before colouring on the watercolour paper. After that I used so saffron for the lemons and did the same way. I started at the edges of the lemons and made those darker going lighter towards the middle.

The watercolour paper was 4.5″ by 3″ (a quarter sheet) which left some white space at the bottom which just didn’t seem to fit with a sentiment. So I trimmed a half an inch off it and then I was happy with it. I put a skinny mat of black around it and mounted it on a base of wild wasabi. I lined the envelope with the backgrounds DSP in wild wasabi.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Here’s another sneak peek for you from the upcoming Sale-a-bration catalogue which goes live on 6th January. This is one of the sets that you can get for free after spending $50; it’s the Stampin’ Up! A Happy Thing set.

When I got this stamp out and stamped it in memento black ink on whisper white, my mother, who is visiting, had a look and commented that the beak was too short for a kingfisher. I went to wikipedia and checked out both the beak and the colouring. I coloured the breast in pumpkin pie blendabilities but none of the blues were correct so I used my stampin’ write marker in pacific point to colour the rest of the bird. Then I took my black marker and both coloured in the beak and elongated it a bit. The family declared it more kingfisher like!

I used calypso coral blendabilities for his legs/feet and one of the browns, I forget which, for the twig with some touches of old olive at the end. I then cut out my kingfisher with the #7 circles die (starting counting in the centre). Somehow this card seems perfect for a note rather than a card for an occasion so I decided against adding any sentiment or extra layers. I think he stands rather well all on his own.