Watercolor for Card Makers, Intermediate.

So, I've always wanted to take a watercolor class. My mom, who has always been very supportive of my artistic ambitions, signed me up for a watercolor class at Hobby Lobby when I was in my early teens. I was by far the youngest person in the class, and I felt slightly awkward, plus I think I was a little young to understand some of the concepts, so the class was not the most successful class I've ever taken. Since I've recently rekindled my interest in watercoloring, I've been wanting to take a true watercolor class, but I am a little pressed for time with my two little ones. When I saw the Online Card Class entitled Watercolor for Card Makers, I knew it was something I needed to do. My kiddos haven't been cooperating with naptime recently, so my watercoloring time has been severely curtailed. (If you follow me on Instagram, you know my little girl has figured out how to climb out of her crib. She now thinks that just because she CAN climb out that she HAS to climb out, regardless of what time it is or whether her brother is asleep. Le Sigh.)  I've only managed to watch and complete the lessons for day one, watch day 2, as well as doing a little playing with the pre-class exercises.

This first card is admittedly not my favorite card that I've ever made. The assignment was to practice brush strokes with the flat brush, and this panel was my favorite of my practice sessions. I do like the color scheme that I used for this card, though the pattern is a little geometric for my taste. (I have been told that it's good to do things outside of my comfort zone?) I managed to create this background with only three colors of watercolor, and I added gold centers using gold Twinkling H2O. They shimmer quite nicely in real life. The "thank you" was die cut from gold foil using a Heidi Swapp die that I found at Joann's.

My next card was also not my favorite card. I should have chosen a simpler technique, but I really wanted to use my balloon shaker dies from PTI, and I thought I would be able to achieve a really neat transparent shadow-y effect by mixing some of the colors where the balloons overlapped.

Well, it didn't work. 

The colors just became all muddy and kinda meh. Definitely not what I was going for. But, as the talented Jessica Frost-Ballas reminded us last week, everything looks better as a sparkly shaker card. So that's what I did. I needed a birthday card for my husband's 86 year old grandfather, and I thought he would appreciate the construction of a shaker card. (My hubby teased me about this, saying that I thought an old man would want to play with a shaker, but I think he will like it.) 

I filled the shaker with an abundance of colorful, primary-colored sequins and stars from various sources, as well as some iridescent navy seed beads. I then added the sentiment (a die from Sizzix that I found at Hobby Lobby) over the top of the shaker panel, which I then covered in clear Wink of Stella. 

That's all for me today. I'm planning on spending some time playing along with the PTI Anniversary festivities, but I probably won't get time to blog everything I make, but I'll be sure to post my projects on Instagram. I can't wait to see what they've got in store for us this year!! 

Have a great week, friends!