Cindy Brown - Creative Watercolor Media

This was a fun course with lessons on using the creative use of ink pads, reinkers, ink sprays and whatever materials are available, for water coloring. I selected this card as my favorite to present here because it includes a fun technique called "smooshing". I also like the vivid background with the serene scene of the bench and plants. 

I began with a 4.5 X 6 inch piece of Arches hot pressed, 140 pound watercolor paper. This paper was recommended by one of the instructors of this course and I used it for the first time while I completed the assignments for this course. It is very smooth and I liked working with it. 
I used Versafine Onyx Black Pigment Ink to stamp a sceneI from Altenew's "Garden Grow." I used the Misti as I had to stamp this several times to get clearly stamp the details in this stamp. I used the technique of masking with masking paper to build the little scene of the plants on a bench. The sentiment "Just a Note" was from Altenew's "Wonderland" stamp set. I then waited for the pigment ink to dry completely before proceeding with the next steps. 

Next, I used Nuvo masking fluid to cover the bench, plant, watering can and sentiment.

Once the masking fluid became solid, I could begin creating the background with the smooshing technique. For this, I pressed the ink from Altenew's Warm Sunshine and Coral Berry onto a Teflon craft mat. I pressed each color in several areas and then spritzed the ink with water. I then "smooshed" the paper into the ink and then dried the first smoosh results with my embossing gun and then pressed the paper again into the ink on the craft mat and then dried it with the embossing gun. I repeated this until the paper was covered with the ink. 

Once the paper was completely dry, I removed the solidified masking fluid by rolling it off with my fingers. I then painted the scene with Altenew inks and a water paint brush. The terra cotta pots are painted with Altenew Caramel Toffee dye ink. The leaves were painted with Altenew Moss dye ink. The bench is painted with Altenew Espresso dye ink. The flower was painted with Altenew Midnight Violet dye ink. To create some depth, I painted over areas several times and with less water. 

I embellished the card with 3 mm sequins in golden yellow, brown and purple. To complete the card, I used double-sided tape to adhere the card to a top-fold card base.