Make It Monday: Watercolor Background Paper

Happy Monday all!  I'm starting a new series on my blog, Make It Monday.  It's inspired by Kristina Werner's Make A Card Monday video series on her YouTube channel.  My plan is to use this series to show off techniques and how I do them.  This will not be a weekly series, but more of an every other week post.  I plan to showcase all sorts of projects.  Today, I do have a card I made using a watercolored paper technique.  This card was inspired by Kristina Werner ; she's made a few cards lately using this technique.

**Warning:  Photo Heavy!**

I started out with my supplies:  kraft card base, blue cardstock, watercolor paper, Distress markers, and my craft mat.  In the end, I don't use the blue cardstock.  And the watercolor paper I haven't cut down yet.

I scribbled my Distress markers onto the craft mat.  I made sure that the colors didn't touch.  And I put each color in more than one spot, trying to disperse color all over my paper.

Next, I took my mini mister and sprayed water all over my Distress markers scribbles, until the color beads up.

I took my watercolor paper and smooshed it into my scribbles.  I wiggled it around a bit and swiped it across the color spots to get this...

It's so pretty!  I took my heat gun to it before I added more color to my paper.  

Here's my end result after a couple more times of smooshing the paper into some more color and drying the paper.

I wanted to die cut my sentiment using my own paper, so I found a "hello" sentiment in the Silhouette library.  If you're curious about the settings I used for this watercolor paper, I set my Cameo to the cardstock setting, but turned my blade a number higher because this paper is a bit thicker than regular cardstock.  It cut like butter!

And here's my finished card!  I hope you found this post helpful and inspiring.  Next time I try this technique, I want to try it with Gelatos.  I have more colors of those than Distress Markers.  The possibilities are endless!

I'm looking forward to this new series.  If you have any suggestions for me, let me know in my comments section!

xoxo,

Heather

Sweet & Kelster Challenge: What's Trendy...Watercolors!

And finally, the day our readers have been waiting for:  the first Sweet & Kelster challenge (still the unofficial name)!  Kelly and I have a long list of challenges and projects we are excited to complete.  Our first challenge we thought to take on would be something that's very trendy in the scrapbook world.  If you're not living under a rock, you know that watercolors are super, super cool right now.  And I'm pretty sure Kelly and I purchased our first watercolor set around the same time.  It's like, we're meant to be crafty friends!  So, here's my take on our challenge:

Products Used:  Citrus Twist Kits September Main Scrapbook Kit;
Loew-Cornell Watercolor Set, Jillibean Soup Alphabeans in Whipped White,
scraps from Dear Lizzy 5th and Frolic, scraps from Glitz Wild & Free,
 Prima Chalk Ink in Rock Moss,  Stampin' UP! ink in Crisp Cantaloupe, enamel dots

This layout just makes me extremely happy!  And, let me tell you, it was a challenge for me.  This is definitely not my norm for creating a scrapbook layout, but it was oh so fun!  If you've been following me or have seen any of my projects in my 2Peas gallery, you will notice that I don't use solid color cardstock as a background, like, ever.  I just really love patterned paper.  My inspiration came from Garden Girl, Corrie Jones.  I love everything she's ever created.  You should definitely check out her gallery.  Her techniques are just so inspirational.  I thought I've seen a video where she creates a layout like this with watercolor "sun rays."  Unfortunately, I cannot find it, but when I do, I'll link it up.


Back to why this was a bit of a challenge for me...my first cardstock I actually threw out because it was just horrible.  I've never completely thrown out the foundation of a layout, but I just had to this time around.  I ended up with too much gelatos on my page (this is the first layout that I've made with watercolors as the main technique) and it was a mess and not in a good way.  Luckily, I was only working on the background, so it was only paper I threw out.  Then I remembered my inspirational scrapbooker, and then everything shot off from there.  

Now, if you want to play along with Kelly and I in our trendy challenge featuring watercolors, please link of your project in the comments section.  You can link up in my comments or hers.  We'll be giving away a small prize (to be updated on this post later, so please come back) to a reader that plays along! You have until next Thursday, October 17th to link your project up. 

Okay, now go check out Kelly's take on the challenge.  I love that she didn't make a traditional layout, but more of an inspirational piece to hang in her scrap room.  Love it!  I actually don't have anything hanging in my scrap area, so Kelly's definitely inspired me to create something!

If you want to see more of this layout, check out my gallery at 2Peas.

xoxo,
Heather