Stampin! with Jaydee

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday.

Sorry my blog wasn't available yesterday - and I wasn't able to post, but Typepad, my hosting service, was downed by another Denial of Service attack.  By the time they had service restored, I was fast asleep!  This is the third attack in a month, I'm hoping that they will be unaffected for a while!

Anyway, now that we are back online - on to today's card.

As my regular readers will know, I recently attended the onlinecardclasses watercolor for card makers class.  One of the last classes was on using dies to create an embossed area and water coloring that.  I wasn't sure I would ever use the technique, but saw this challenge across at casestudy and was really attracted to the colors and the cluster of images.  This proved to be the kicking off point that I needed for the water color technique.

Here's the inspiration card:

I loved the pop of blue and red and yellow against the white background.  So, I used those colors for my card.

I started with a piece of watercolor paper - smooth side up.  I used an "embossing sandwich" with my Big Shot and embossed three balloons in the center of my card.  That was the easy part.....  I am not good with a paint brush and ink.... it's just something that doesn't come at all naturally to me.  So, it took me ages to color these balloons and get them to where I wanted them.  It was time consuming, but very therapeutic!

Once the balloons were dry, all I had to do was draw in the strings for the balloon and add a sentiment.   I decided that the base of the card should be Blackberry Bliss.  It really is so rich and luscious that it seems to highlight any colors:-)

Here's my card:

Of course, I needed to do something with the balloons - so used my Wink of Stella pen to add some subtle glimmer and shine.  I couldn't get a good shot of it - but here's a closeup to give you an idea of how pretty they look.

I know it took ages to do the coloring, but in the end I was very pleased with myself and realized that, like everything else in life, watercoloring takes lots of practice.  I still have a lot of practicing to do... but think I will keep at it. :-)

On a personal note:

Well... we had a little rain yesterday.... about 3 inches worth!  It rained and rained and rained and rained.  The thunder was so intense that I could feel it rolling under my chair when I was on conference calls yesterday.  It meant that we couldn't start to lay the concrete for the screening under the deck, but, it did mean that the wetlands flooded again.

Yesterday evening Lou and I were watching the fading light over the wetland and I was so blessed to see Mrs Aflac (the mallard) nudging 7 little ducklings into the water.  I watched her quickly hustle them all together and them push them into the water with her beak.  They were TINY little things, but, just as the adage says... they took to water like ducks :-)  They were quickly swimming along behind her as she hurried to get them to safety.   It was a wonderful sight and made me realize again just how lucky we are.    This morning, they are nowhere to be seen, but Mr Aflac is sitting on his log, head tucked under his wing, fast-asleep.  Life sure is beautiful!

I promised to share a nature photograph with you with every card posting.  Here's a bird that I am always happy to see return in spring

No... not the grackle :-)  The Rosebreasted Grosbeak is a gorgeous bird.  We see a flash of black and white and then a touch of the rose-red breast. He's a very welcome visitor.

I'll be back tomorrow with another card..... so long as Typepad is available :-)   Thank you for your visit, your comments - and your patience.  Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift today.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe.

• Card stock:  BlackBerry Bliss (SU).  Watercolor paper - Strathmore
• Inks:  Inktense Pencils.  Color taken straight from the pencils with a watercolor brush
• Balloon dies: Simon Says Stamp