Distress watercolour lifting and playing with colour

Hi Everyone,

Mirella here. I hope you are all well, and are enjoying our Mudra birthday celebrations! There is quite a lot happening, isn't it exciting? Additionally, I am totally loving the new release - what about you? 

I have 4 cards for you today, hope you enjoy these!

Card 1: Watercolours & a butterfly

1. I created the background panel on watercolour paper with Distress Inks (Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire, Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers). I put 3 layers of ink on the cardstock, letting the panel air-dry between each layers. 

2. I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment on the panel.

3. For some additional interest, I decided to die cut a frame in the panel, and I turned it 180 degrees before adhering all 3 pieces to a white card base.

4. I had a left over butterfly stamped on vellum from the projects I was working on previously, and I decided to add it in the bottom corner of the card - I think it fits there, doesn't it? 

Card 2: Distress watercolour lifting 

1. Watercolour lifting is a technique I learned from Jennifer McGuire - I encourage you to check her videos for more inspiration! Tip: this technique works fantastically well with Distress Inks, but other watercolours might give you similar effects, too - just give whatever you have at home a go! 

2. I created the background panel on watercolour paper with Distress Inks (Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Spun Sugar, Mustard Seed and Wild Honey). I put 3 layers of ink on the cardstock, letting the panel air-dry between each layers.

3. I stamped the hearts with Versamark ink & heat embossed them with a clear embossing powder. 

4. I then "lifted" the colour from the panel by going over it with a brush loaded with clean water and tapping the panel with a dry cloth/a sheet of kitchen towel - whatever colour is "trapped" under the embossing powder, remained vibrant. The remainder of the panel faded quite a bit. 

5. I stamped the sentiment and die cut the whole panel. 

6. Before mounting the panel on a card base, I added some silver twine for additional interest.

7. As a final touch, I adhered some clear sequins here and there - these are not Mudra sequins, as I don't have them yet (can't wait!), but I am sure the Mudra ones will look equally nice! :o)

Card 3: Another example of Distress watercolour lifting - using scraps 

1. I had a small left-over piece of watercolour paper, hence I decided to make use of it and make a smaller card - I think it's always good to use scraps! 

2. I pretty much repeated steps 2-4 from card number 2, using different Distress Ink colours (Candied Apple, Wild Honey, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade) and a different Mudra stampset.

3. I stamped the sentiment, mounted the watercolour panel on black cardstock, and then adhered it all to a red card base - the card ended up being roughly 5.25 inches tall and 2.5 inches wide.

Card 4: CAS (Clean and Simple)

1. I recently purchased the Gazebo pack of mini ink cubes from Lawn Fawn, and wanted to try out the colours - but instead of doing swatches, I decided to make a CAS card. :o)

2. I used 3 out of the 4 colours in the set for stamping - my MISTI helped me hugely with aligning the sentiment (but do note that you don't necessarily need a stamping tool to make a similar card!). Since the 4th colour of the ink pack is grey, I decided to mat my stamped panel with some grey patterned paper. 

3. I heat embossed "today" on a scrap of black cardstock, and adhered it to the card with foam tape.

4. As a final touch, I added some Ranger Enamel Accents here ant there. 

Which card is your favourite? 

Stamps used:

 

Don't forget to play along with our current challenge where the theme is Celebration

Mudra stamps are now available at the following Retailers:

The Craft Shop 

Lulupu - The Craft Lounge 

Craft Adda 

Crafts Need

Anandha Stationery

Hindustan Trading Company, Chennai

Art and Craft Store - Noida

The Craft Store, Srilanka 

Kat Scrappiness , USA

Paper Curves, UAE

Have a great day,

Mirella