Distress Ink Watercoloring -- MFT Doodle Garden Sweet as can Bee

I grabbed this stamp set up on sale at My Favorite Things.    I have really been in to watercoloring and trying out new things.    I follow Kristina Werner's blog and just love her videos and she is great inspiration for any card maker.      Distress inks and markers are probably my favorite mediums to color with and I think the easiest to learn the technique.   It is not perfect coloring but that to me is what is so great about it.   Mistakes can be fixed sometimes or left in for a wonderful surprise! :-)

I used Tim Holtz Watercolor paper and stamped my image in Archival Black ink.    I used my Distress Markers to color the image and used my heat gun to dry each area that I painted.   I am impatient when it comes to watercoloring and it is hard for me to step away and come back.  

The background was done using my Distress Ink pads on an acrylic block and then creating a wash of a mixture of different colors.   After I was done with the background, I covered up my image with some post it notes and then flicked ink with a lot of water onto my panel.  TIP:  Put this in a box to keep the splatter down on things around you including yourself! :-)  Ask me how I know…..  Then I used just a brush and water to place different water drops on the card.  I left them on for about 30-60 seconds and put a napkin on top to pick up the water.  The ink is still reactive to the water.   

I set the watercolor panel under a book to really flatten it out.    My original intention was to cut this down or use a die to cut a shape out with the image but after it was completed, I really did not want to cut it down.   It is 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 size originally.   So I left it overnight to really flatten it out and then put a TON of foam tape on the back and added it to an A2 card base from MFT Smooth White Card Stock.   

After I took the photos, I put some Wink of Stella Clear Glitter on the wings and it gave them just a little sparkle.   On the inside, I stamped a sentiment from the stamp set - "don't worry, be happy." 

I was super happy with how it turned out!   

Thanks for stopping by!