Merry Christmas

This past weekend, I participated in the online Card Makers Success Summit. The theme was "Christmas in July," so the focus was on holiday cards. Twenty-five instructors came "together"--virtually, of course--to teach many techniques over the 4-day summit. Preeti Chandran's lesson on easy faux watercolor techniques inspired this card. I used another "trick" I learned during the summit with this card - cut a 9x12" piece of watercolor paper into (6) 3x6" pieces, to make 6 mini slimline cards. With the help of my MISTI stamp positioning tool, I was able to make 6 cards total of this design in just a few hours.

I used Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' "Christmas Pine" stamp set for the images & greeting. I began by stamping the branches. With the stamp & my Canson Montval watercolor paper panel in my MISTI, I used a green Tombow marker to "ink" up the stamp. I spritzed it a couple of times lightly with water, then stamped onto my paper. I let the stamp sit for a few seconds, to give the ink a chance to absorb into the paper, giving a "faux" watercolor look. I left the stamp in place after opening my MISTI, dried it off, & inked here & there with a darker green color. I spritzed & stamped that, to create some color variation. I repeated this for each branch. If the image stamped too "cleanly" - with too much detail - I just used a damp paintbrush to spread the color out a bit.

For the pinecones, I used a similar technique. I put my panel in the MISTI, positioned my stamp, & inked it up with a light brown marker. I spritzed the stamp lightly, & stamped onto my paper. This time, though, I used a damp paintbrush to spread the ink out on the paper, keeping the shape of the pinecone. I also left a few highlights here & there. I let that dry while I stamped my other 5 panels with the same images. By the time I returned to my first panel, the ink had dried, so I tapped on the same stamp with a darker brown marker. After spritzing, I stamped the image over the original, to provide some detail to the pinecones.

Once my images were all done, I stamped the greeting in Gina K. Designs Charcoal Brown ink. Once I finished, I felt the images & greeting were still a bit too disconnected, though. So I used a pale gold metallic watercolor to splatter over the panel. That seemed to provide the perfect touch. Finally, I matted the panel with brown cardstock, & adhered it to a white card base.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Christmas Card Throwdown's July Theme Challenge: "Pinecones"

613 Avenue Create's July Challenge: "Anything Goes" (I am playing the watercolor twist)