I may have had a slight panic attack when I learned that our theme for this month's Blogging Friends Blog Hop was to feature water coloring. I love the look of watercolor and I have actually taken several watercolor classes but the truth is I am lousy at it. I am constantly watching Kristina Werner videos on the no line watercolor technique and her projects are truly a work of art. Mine are mud, So, I have resigned myself to the fact that until I become independently wealthy and can devote entire days to learning and perfecting the art of watercolor it is what it is. Which is not good.
BUT, that doesn't mean I can't give it one more shot and I actually discovered a "watercolor" technique that produces beautiful results with little skill. I'll get to that in a minute but first I want to share my latest addiction...Pigs. Yep, pigs. I grew up in a tiny little New England town where cows and pigs were plentiful. To paint a picture, my senior year of high school a group of friends and I went to the movies to see the Amityville Horror where one of my girlfriends very loudly cried out Sooooooie in the middle of the pig scene. But I digress. I have never been particularly fond of pigs other than Wilbur and Lester (the manner-inducing pig from the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series) but the adorable images in the new Stampin' Up! stamp set "This Little Piggy" have me hopelessly pig-smitten.
Seriously, how cute are they? I love them all but the flying pig is by far my favorite. I love the positive girl-power sentiment that goes along with her but I do wish there was a "When Pigs Fly" sentiment as well, lol! You can imagine my excitement when I came across these little dark chocolate truffles with a flying pig on the wrapper.
The actual truffles are even pig-shaped!
(a few chocolate truffle pigs may have been sacrificed in the making of this blog post)
I just had to take several of them home with me and create a cute alternative way to package them up and make them prettier. (our pig is much cuter than the one on the package) I created a simple tent card with a matchbox closure and... you guessed it....water colored my pigs! I colored 6 and got 3 that I thought were salvageable. While they are definitely not Kristina Werner quality, I am fairly happy with my results.
A little Wink of Stella on her wings and she was good to go. Please stop by again on Monday when I will have dimensions and instructions on my tent enclosure,pig package and where I was able to purchase the pig truffles. Because you are going to want to run out and grab some too. They are both adorable and delicious!
Up next is a cool "water color" technique that I learned from Jennifer McGuire. It works great with our Stampin' Write Markers and gives beautiful results with very little skill. I couldn't wait to try out this technique with my new Mermaid from the Magical Mermaid stamp set. (Mermaids and Seahorses are another one of my current addictions) Here is my card:
I created 22 of these mermaid shakers for a Demo Swap to celebrate the new catalog. (a swap is where you create multiple copies of the same card, usually using an assigned stamp set, and then send them to the "Swap Host". The Host collects samples from other participants and sends you the same number of card samples back. Sometime within the next week or so I will receive 20 cards from 20 different Stampin' Up! Demonstrators featuring all new sets from the new catalog!) Here is an infinity shot of my swap cards before they went postal:
For this technique, Simply take our water-based Stampin' Write marker color of your choice (alcohol markers will not work with this technique) and scribble some color on to an acrylic block. (Be sure to use the side of your marker so you don't ruin the tip. You can also use a re-inker for this step but your color will be much more intense)
Next, use your clear Wink of Stella to pick up some of the color and use your Wink of Stella brush like you would an Aqua Painter water brush. You get a beautiful blend (no lines!) just like you would with an alcohol based marker. Beautiful blendable color that sparkles!
Next up on the Hop is Super Stamp Girl Crystal! Please make sure you check out all my Blogging Friends today as I have no doubt they will all WOW you with their creations! If you get lost along the way, links to each individual blog post are below. Enjoy the rest of the Hop and thanks for stoppin' by!
