Dinosaur Birthday Card

Hi, everyone!  I can't believe I finished this card, and just in time, too, for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.  The challenge this week is "All Creatures Great and Small," featuring Paper Smooches products.

I was excited when I saw the challenge, because I just ordered some Paper Smooches stamps, and I needed an excuse to break them out of their packaging and use them!

Today's card is a birthday card:

I recently discovered watercoloring using distress inks, and I'm really loving this technique.  The dinosaur and the images are stamped on watercolor paper, which I've matted with black cardstock over the turqouise card base.

I cheated a little bit on the sentiment (it's not a Paper Smooches product, but I think it fit perfectly with my card).

I used these products for my card (with links to where you can get them, if you're interested):
Black and turqouise card stock (my stash)
Watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Cuteasaurus stamp set (Paper Smooches)
Chit Chat stamp set (Lawn Fawn) - I bought the coordinating dies with the stamp set
Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Brushed Curduroy, Mowed Lawn Distress inks (Ranger) - I bought 10 of the 12 mini sets (so cute!), and I'm waiting for the other 2 to become available again
Versamark watermark stamp pad (Tsukineko)
Black embossing powder (Stampin' Up!)
Foam tape (Scotch)
Big Shot (Sizzix)

Thanks for looking, and have a great day!

Watercoloring with Distress Inks

Hi, everyone!

Today I'll share with you a card I made using disress inks.  I bought some distress inks two years ago, so I could ink my scrapbook/mini-album pages.  I bought the full pads (the mini's were not available at the time), but did not get to complete the "collection."

I saw some YouTube videos of other papercrafters using the distress inks to watercolor, and I was itching to try it out, so I broke out my distress inks and started watercoloring:

I stamped the image in watercolor paper, die cut it, and then embossed using Versamark and black embossing powder.

Then I got carried away, and decided to try my hand at blending with the blending tool, too:

I used the blending tool for the sky.  First, I made mask for the buildings in the background, then blended the blue (Salty Ocean) around them.  Then, I stamped the buildings (sorry, as you can see, they were not spot-on) in black ink, and colored in the windows with a marker.

I'm entering this card to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.  They are highlighting Tim Holtz's products this week, and the challenge is to make a masculine card.  I hope my card fits the bill!

I don't think I did an awesome job with watercoloring or blending, but I think it was not too bad -- especially since this is my first time to try out both techniques.  I definitely need to work on them, but I love how well the inks flowed into the watercolor paper.  I will definitely be purchasing more of this distress inks in the future.

I used these products for this card:

White cardstock (Georgia-Pacific)

Black cardstock (Recollections)

Watercolor paper (Strathmore)

Stamp set (Paper Smooches Super)

Dies (Paper Smooches Super 1)

Blending tool (Ranger)

Distress inks (Tim Holtz:  Salty Ocean, Black Soot, Barn Door, Faded Jeans, Wild Honey)

Watermark ink (Versamark)

Black embossing powder (Stampin' Up!)

Foam tape

Big Shot

Magnetic platform

Thanks for looking, and have a great day!