Birthday Sunshine

I live in the Pacific Northwest. It rains here a lot. I decided to make a rainy birthday card, with shades of teal, and a sunny sentiment inside.

Supplies

InLinkz.com

Putting It Together

At last month's Stamp 'n' Chat with my local Stampin' Up demonstrator, I borrowed one of her stamps from the current catalogue as well as her Stampin' Up watercolour pencils. She also gave me a panel of Shimmery White which is her preferred card with the pencils. She knows I have more experience with watercolouring than she does (she's doesn't think of herself as a colourist) and so was interested in my opinion of the media.

I coloured the stamp, one of the Beautiful You set, with the Stampin' Up watercolour pencils and waterbrushes I brought with me (not my best ones). The pencils are a limited palette of 13 Stampin' Up colours with nothing that was specifically in 'skin' tones. I wanted to see if I could get a flesh and blending/shading. The Stampin' Up samples use the pencils for more abstract scribbly-washy colouring rather than well defined. 

I had some issues with the skin blending, especially on the left arm (as you might notice) which might have been partly the waterbrush softness and the pencil dullness (I didn't want to sharpen her pencils as much as I do my own). I also didn't really have much choice for hair. But, I do mostly like the way her umbrella and dress turned out. 

Overall, the Stampin' Up pencils don't blend as well as the Staedtler  pencils I own but less so on the Shimmery White cardstock. I keep wanting to like these pencils. The colours are pretty and do match to the Stampin' Up colours very nicely, but they don't really fit as well to the techniques I prefer to use (and are a bit pricey to get -just- for the colours $21 Canadian for 13 pencils, only $16 for US).

From the back of the card, you can see where the cardstock was buckling from the semi-wet blending. I didn't want to push the cardstock too far. It didn't pill with the wet, which is a good thing, but it also didn't work with the watercolouring the way watercolour cardstock can.

I let the panel sit on my table a couple weeks while I was working on other things and pondering a card idea for it. 

I got an idea for a background and so I used a self-matting oval die from Spellbinders to cut the girl from the panel.

For the background, I cut a 4" x 5 1/4" panel from 85lb white Soft Finish cardstock from Elizabeth craft design (side note: another paper that's not good with a wet watercolouring). With the largest of the Clarity brushes, I added a very soft layer of Broken China Distress Ink. I smushed the ink into my plastic work surface and would pick up the ink on the brush to apply to the panel in wide sweeps intentionally catching the colour on the edge of the card to make the edges slightly darker.

With the rain stencil from Southern Ridge, I used the smallest of the Clarity brushes to add darker, but still soft, drops with Broken China, the same colour I applied earlier.

With the large brush again, I softened the edges of the drops with another light addition of Broken China.

I love how this panel turned out! This is fast becoming one of my favourite stencils and to think I almost didn't get it.

I did a dry fit, choosing a stamp from last years Sale-a-bration and retired ribbon.

I did a dry layout in the Misti to get the placement of the "happy birthday" sentiment (and then didn't check it for straight, gah).

For the inside of the card, I used the Misti to align the stencil and the small Clarity brush to add Mustard Seed Distress Ink.

I lined up my inside sentiment over the stenciled sun (and actually payed attention to it's straightness *laugh*).

I used tape runner to tape the ribbon together on the back and then foam mounting tape on the oval and the rain panel to give the card dimension. I used an A2 (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") card base I made from 100 lb white Soft Finish cardstock. 

Challenges

Less is More: Teal

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge: Make Your Own Background

Addicted to Stamps and More: Make Your Mark

Seize the BIrthday: Anything Goes

Polkadoodles challenge blog: Anything Goes