tgif! i hope you've been having fun with this week's make it monday, watercolor resist with rubber cement. as i showed you in the video, i made several different swatch panels while practicing the technique. well, they've been nagging at me all week to turn them into cards, and i just couldn't resist, ha! first i started with the small brushed-on sample. i thought the linear streaks would work particularly well on word die cuts since they're also somewhat linear.
i chose wet paint dies and was able to cut three for a coordinating card set. i opted for my go-to clean and simple style with lots of white space and chose soft stone and black to complete the sentiments with the matching stamps, allowing the watercolor art to really pop. a scattering of mini sequins on each sets the cards apart - different, but similar - finishing off the set perfectly!
next, i was itching to turn another swatch into flip flops and wanted to mix it up with even more pattern. i found a couple of patterns in betsy's mood mix paper collection from stamp-a-faire last summer that had similar colors to the new swirl paper i created, giving me a good mix of three. (i noticed that some people have received this collection in grab bags this month - i love this paper and want more myself!!) don't the two patterns together create an anthropologie-esque beach blanket? i even gave it a fringed edge! and life really is better in flip flops - my favorite flipping out sentiment!
speaking of flip flops, i wanted to point out a couple of fun details i added. first, the flowered straps. i put them through my xyron to cover them in adhesive on top. using a quickstik, i carefully placed the teeniest flowers from the flower sequins in the shakers + sprinkles sequin collection and pressed them into place. then i dipped the straps into clear glitter to cover the rest of the sticky surface around the flowers and brushed the excess away. so much easier than gluing those little bitties individually! second, i really wanted the flip flops straps to have a realistic depth to them. so instead of popping them up completely with foam tape, i only put a tiny square of it under the point and used flat adhesive on the ends. pretty cool!
for my last card, i decided to play up the artsy flair of the watercolor resist and highlight it as the mini painting that it is (!) using elements from make it market: you are a masterpiece. again, i decided to go for it with extra pattern, using left over pieces from the flip flop card above. this swatch was the one i made on camera and it coordinates with the patterns even better than the flip flop swatch.
because of all that pattern, i chose to stick with black and white for the frame and stamp the sentiment directly onto the art piece. i used my misti to stamp the sentiment twice to make it show up well. i definitely recommend using some kind of stand positioner and/or a really dark ink for this kind of look along with a bold sentiment, especially if you used strong, bright colors on your watercolor piece. the result is an accent art wall that i could totally hang with!!
believe it or not, i only used three of my five swatches on these cards. i was kind of on a roll, but then i thought it would be more fun to save a couple and see where they land on future projects. keep an eye out! for those who've already posted and linked, i've really enjoyed seeing what you've created with your own pretty resist pieces!! i'm always amazed by the variety of takes on any given challenge. if you haven't seen the video or had a chance to try it out yet, click through to the original post here or on nichole's blog. you have a couple more days to play before the link list closes...
happy weekend!
:) lexi
