WHAT IF? WEDNESDAY INSPIRATION CHALLENGE

Hello, blog friends!  

Are you getting ready for spring????  Here in Maine, we still have over 2 feet of snow to lose before we see spring and flowers.  It should discourage most people, but Maine'rs just shrug their shoulders and go on.  After all, whadda ya gonna do?  

So in anticipation of spring, here's a fabulous inspiration image for you to play with this week at The House That Stamps Built.

Isn't it beautiful?  You can check out the details for the challenge at The House and then come along and play along with us.  

Here is my card using this inspiration photo

I was immediately drawn to the combination of colors in the photo.  I used my spellbinder scalloped and classic ovals to show off the RI stamp #912-K "Tulip Bouquet" and RI# 2501-H Happy Birthday from.... (this is only a portion of that entire stamp).  The image was colored with Copic Markers.  

Check out the other Rock Stars for lots more inspiration and then head on over to The House and play along.  

                               Debbie - Deonna - Joy - Karen - Kathy - Melissa - Patti J 

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a great week!  

PROJECT OF THE WEEK - WATER COLORING WITH DISTRESS MARKERS

Hello everyone!  

It's my turn, once again, to offer a "Project of the Week" at The House That Stamps Built and today I thought you might like to see some water coloring with Distress Markers.  So many of us have these markers and there are many ways to use them, water coloring is only one way.

For this project here are the supplies you'll need

-  A line stamp with coloring area is the easiest.  I chose RI #1317-L "Vase of Tulips". 
-  An assortment of Distress Markers ( I chose a lighter color and a darker color in a color family in order to shade some areas in the image)
-  A water brush or paint brush and water
-  Watercolor paper (I used Distress Watercolor Cardstock)
-  An acrylic block for a palette
-  Waterproof ink (Archival is good) 
-  Clear Embossing Powder
-  A static control tool to keep the stray embossing powder from sticking on your image where you don't want it.  

To begin:
1.  Prepare your watercolor paper with the anti-static tool and then stamp your image onto the watercolor paper.  Sprinkle clear embossing powder over the image and heat set it with a heat gun.  
2.  Take your Distress Markers and scribble your first color onto the acrylic block you're using as your palette and with your water brush pick up a little color on the tip of the brush.  Go lightly at first.  You can always add more color if you need it darker.  

 3.  Paint your image, from the inside toward the outer edge.  This gives you light shading effect.  
4.  When you're ready to shade an area, add a darker color of the same color family to the acrylic block and using the same method of adding color to the brush, add the darker color to the areas that would be darkest.  In this case, the depth of the leaves.

5.  When you're satisfied you can move on to other areas with more color.

6.  I always start with the lightest color and then add the darker where I either want shading or if I want to change the color of the image.  

If you get too much water in an area, take a paper towel and blot it up.  You can always reactivate your colors using just water.  

You can see from my finished photo that the colors dry a little lighter than they look when wet, so keep that in mind when your painting.  (The list of colors I used for this project are:  Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers {vase}, Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn {leaves}, Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon and Pick Raspberry {tulips})  

I hope you try coloring with Distress Markers and have some fun with this.