Trimmed with Love

Happy Friday to you once again! The week seemed to go by rather quickly for me - did it for you? I'm sure most of you are so happy it's Friday... I still have another 12 hour shift to pull tonight, then my weekend will officially begin... YAY! hee hee......

Well, you probably know by now that I adore using all my Stampin' Up! goodies - whether it's retired or not, so it's time for a Friday Flashback! Even though it's still hitting around 100 degrees in Phoenix, the mornings are beginning to cool down which always helps me to start getting into the holiday spirit. I felt inspired to do a Christmas card, and this is the result-




Aren't those hedgehogs just too cute?! They are so much fun to color in, and I love, love, love to watercolor!!! I know Copic markers are all the rage right now, but I don't think you really need to invest in them if you already have a collection of good waterbased markers like Stampin' Up's. I love the variety of colors we offer, and watercoloring/shading is not hard to do with a touch of patience and a little bit of practice. I actually like to lay down my first layer of watercoloring, which gives the softer and lighter areas on your image, then going back over the darker "shadowed" areas with the actual marker pen tip directly to the paper. You can just "pull" the darker colored areas into the lighter areas with an aquapainter and achieve your range in depth this way. I keep my aquapainter on the drier side - just a little moisture is all that's necessary. Also, be sure to use a good quality paper that can resist the moisture a bit - like watercolor paper, although I get good results with Whisper White.


Supplies Used:
Stamps - Holiday Hedgehogs, Trimmed with Love (both retired)
Cardstock - Ballet Blue, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White
Inks -Basic Black, Versamark, SU markers: Creamy Caramel, Going Grey, Close to Cocoa, Real Red and Ballet Blue
Accessories - Aquapainter, mat pack, paper piercer, twine, edge distressor from cutter kit, dimensional popdots



This brings us to a Tip-To-Share moment!
I found an easy way to create a reverse distressed edge for a frame (as found around my sentiment block above), is to poke along the edge with a paper piercer. Don't worry about perfection here because the distressed edge needs variation! Finish by tearing along the perforations and roughening up the edge with a fingernail. The pic below shows what I mean. I actually had to go back and make my frame just a little skinnier width-wise because I didn't get enough blue cardstock peeking through to my liking on the sentiment block. By piercing along the edges first, it made it so much easier to tear, and I didn't run the risk of ripping my skinny frame in two.



So I hope this little holiday card has inspired you today. I hope you get a chance to dig around your stash and give watercoloring a try. Have a great Friday and enjoy your weekend! Come back soon!!