Creating water color backgrounds in 60 seconds

Water colors are a great medium to create vibrant backgrounds. I experiment a lot with these and today I want to share a fun technique which I call “water play” which takes less than 60 seconds if you are working on a 16” X 16” paper (smaller means lesser time). This works best on water color paper, however works reasonably well on any other paper which is does not resist water (like gloss). II have tried it with regular chart paper, card stock and thin gsm printer paper….It worked with all.

 The whole technique just lets water do its job (to merge and flow) while you just either draw lines, or introduced drops of water color at different intervals.

Another unique thing is you just need primary colors, red, yellow, blue to work this. I have tried black and white but you can’t be so random with them.

 This is best to make quick landscapes, waterscapes and skyscapes and use it as a background. You can also doodle, stamp or emboss on these.

 And I promise it takes less than 60 seconds(except the drying time) and you can just never go wrong.

 

If you are trying it remember the most important thing…..just have fun, water and colors will always throw a new surprise at you, and you will love it.

I created 3 other such backgrounds and will use it for some of my future projects.

Just a quick note , water color does become a tad lighter once dry, so do not fear using darker shades if need be.


PS: I used watercolor set by American Crafts for this one!!!

Textured Kitty tag

I wanted to make a funny tag for long now. Finally, I decided to make this for my best friend who has finally decided to get married to her sweetheart after years of living in. We are both ardent cat lovers and I let all my catty love flow for this one

 

I cut out a tag of cardboard, randomly tore patches to let the corrugated portion peep through. After which I applied patches of gesso, dabs of crackle, some acrylic paint and finally ink sprayed it before I let it dry.

  

This time I decided to go with my own hand drawn sketch, hand written message and self made stencils (honestly coz I don’t have anything of that sort in my stash!). I sketched a cat and with a similar shape, sketched another sheet to cut out ‘cat stripes’ . Similarly  from a scrap thick paper I cut out fish bone patterns.

 

My selfmade stencils

 

I used these to layer modeling paste onto my tag. I re-gessoed some portion of my cat, before I went ahead with the modeling paste. For the tag hole I used my paw punch. For the tail I used burlap twine and added some texture to it.

  

 I wanted to play with this statement “Officially mine” so I twisted it into a catty lingo “Ofishally mine”. To add more zing, I wanted to portray the fish as the cats catch hence decided to use a net (this is what my local veg vendor sells to me in) and make some paper fish. For the fish I dabbed texture paint and ink sprayed on a glossy sheet to get this uneven effect. Then I sketched and cut fish shapes. For creating a fishing hook, The sandwiched a clothes hook between the two fish cut outs. I handwrote the quote and paw punched and inked it.



Used this for the fish

 

Finally, I loosely stuck the net and tightly hooked the fish to it.

  

Hope you enjoyed it.
Supplies used:
Clear Crackle texture, white gesso, modeling paste, acrylic paint, paw shape punch, copics, burlap string, pink & blue ink spray, craft knife and craft mat....

Happy Crafting!

  

Am linking this to
 

BGC : textured tag
TMC : Anything goes
Scrapitgirl: Stencils
Unstampables: Funny

Gauche Challenge: Country Chic : Inspired by colors, texture and net/lace in the mood board. This is the first time im playing along this challenge. I happened to bump into this blog while surfing. I really adore the unique projects the alchemist bring to the table. I am an all new follower!

 

Mixed Media tag

Am very excited sharing this with you today. I have been down with an ENT infection for a while and just been crafting in my head. Finally I am somewhat back in my craft room, have been looking around for inspiration and am really kicked up about using textures.

 This time I made an altered luggage tag.

 

While I have been in bed, Ive been staring at this luggage tag on my suitcase. I really loved the cut and was thinking I can make it look like a mini suitcase. So here I am; combining my love for travel, texturing and recycling!

 

The original tag

 I stuck a translucent wrapping tissue paper all over the tag so use the red color of the tag. The front side (where the name is displayed, I cut out a card stock shaped as a suitcase, applied a layer of gesso applied home made modeling paste while adding a tingle of shimmer, through my stash net stencil. I clicked this pic while I was carrying it in my hand, also so you’d have an idea of the size of the tag!



Suitcase shaped paper textured to stick onto the airline tag

 

I wanted to make a small wheel to my suitcase so I pulled out an old red button from my stash , gessoed it and inked it.



Button as a wheel
 

 Once dry, I dabbed distress ink on it. My kitty recently tore apart my pearl bracelet and I had kept those away in my box, so I thought of using those to border the suitcase.

I was experimenting with crepe papers to make flowers and I had made these mini sunflowers some time back. However since they are so small, I never got a chance to really use them. Any guesses what I made the leaves from!...Well, it is a result of an interesting experiment. I soaked up a green wool in glue and then stitched it over a paper to create this formation. I let it dry and simply tore apart the paper and was left with this beauty (which I further colored/ distressed) .

 Moving to the back of my tag (this is where I wanted the red to show through!) I applied modeling paste to create a world map and to the water area applied gesso. Once dry, I simply painted the water with acrylic paints and couldn’t resist my temptation to add some glitter!

World map created with gesso and paste

 The other flap of the tag (behind the name and address flap) I applied modeling paste and scratched it with a fork to create this pattern. Since this is so small and I don’t own a stencil so small, I made some cut outs from an OHP to create the Rays pattern and stamped a cut ladiesfinger (Okra ) with gesso and red ink and let the color play itself.

 

 I sketched this blue haired girl, while I wanted to use the phrase “to paint the town red”. Since I made a globe-trotting tag here, I changed it to world!

 

 

 I am so used to creating large mixed media projects, this was completely out of my comfort zone. But I learnt that size doesn’t necessarily interfere with spontaneity!


Im quite liking how this looks....what a chic suitcase it would make.

Wouldn’t you help but notice it, if it was dragged in front of you while you are killing time at the boarding gate!

 

Suitcase on wheels

 Supplies used: home made - modeling paste, gesso, crepe paper, mini pearls, button, green twine, distress ink (worn lipstick).

Am linking this to

BGC 58: Textured tag

Lessology : Travelogue
Craft Hoarders Anonymous  Challenge #15 - All The Pretty Flowers
SSS Wednesday : Create your background

 

Very excited to link this to The Mirror Crack’d  , their first mixed media challenge.

Superb Itsy Bitsy giveaway at BGC

I love playing along the cool challenges that are set at Beyond Grey challenges, but all through September they are also giving a Itsy Bitsy set as they are their sponsors.

This is a great chance since I love shopping at Itsy Bitsy and love playing along BGC!!

Follow this link to enter your name or click on this picture in the side bar.

 http://beyondgrey.blogspot.ae/2014/09/september-celebrations.html

 

All out with watercolors.

The other day I planted a whole new colors of rose moss (sun rose)  flower plants, but ever since it has just been cloudy and these beauties don’t blossom unless there is full sunshine. Im going to use this theme for card.

 

After crayons and color pencils, watercolors is the first wet paint introduced to kids in school, ever since I have adored its versitality. There is so much one can do with them and I wanted to try so many techniques at one go.

 

First to create a textured paper, I mixed water colors (from tube) with white PVA glue. I dabbed blue, yellow and red of this mixture on a glossy cardstock. I moved it randomly to let the free will of colors to mix. Then I simply made a checked pattern with a fork as you can see.

 

 

My second experiment was with tissue papers. First, I dirtied my craft mat with water colors, pink, red, yellow, white & glue and then used a tissue paper to soak it up and allowed it to dry. (The glue is used to harden the tissue although it continues to look delicate.

 

 

Thirdly, I applied a thick layer of gesso in up to down direction on card stock and after drying applied 2-3 coats of dark blue. This gives a nice matte look to the paper.

 

 

Now I had created three textures with watercolors, what better than combining it.

 

I made flowers with these tissue papers. I prefer not to cut them into petals, but simple tear them out ad roll them. Flowers are so random, so why not be random while making them.

 

 

I cut out leaves from the first textured paper I had created and created a flower scene. I thought some small piece of lace will do justice so added a piece in between the flowers.

 

 

Now incase you noticed the nice clear sticker sun on top of the card and are left wondering from where I got it, well, I just pulled it out from a wine bottle...I cant help but include atleast one recycled item (even if remotely) in every project.

 

Im quite happy with the whole look of the card and the combination of textures and colors. Just hoping this inspires the clouds to move out and let the sun shine bright over my sun moss!!

 

Am linking this to

 http://beyondgrey.blogspot.in/2014/08/bgc57-watercolors.html watercolors

 http://dreamvalleychallenges.blogspot.ca/2014/08/challenge-89-flowers.html flowers

 http://www.craftybloggersnetwork.blogspot.in/2014/08/august-challenge-at-crafty-bloggers.html summer fun

 http://frillyandfunkie.blogspot.in/2014/08/a-summer-garden.html  Summer garden

 

Misting with wax pastels

What do you get when you leave a crafty kid and my craft supplies alone in a room, unattended for an hour?

 Ok, atleast this is what I got (and loads and loads of mess which I went crazy cleaning!)

 

My 9 year old niece had pulled out my stencil and started using it on water color paper to sketch it with a white wax oil pastel. Kids are very patient indeed! I had made homemade ink sprays and stacked them for another use. She beautifully sprayed these on stenciled sheet. When water based ink and pastels react, this is a fun  result.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really liked the whole shabby texture and colors that were created so we converted it into a simple card.

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I stamped a pattern onto various card stocks , while she colored it and cut out butterflies from these. We added a dab of glitter to the background. We arranged it to create a nice color palette and added lace for a nice look.

  

Am sharing this with

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-childrens-summer-vacation-challenge/

http://lulupu.blogspot.in/2014/08/challenge-37-plus-step-by-step.html background stamps used for butterflies and sprays

 http://blog.kraftzone.in/2014/08/challenge-8-cas.html CAS

 http://bunnyzoescrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/august-challenge-summer-colours.html summer colors

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ warms and shiny colors

 

 

A personalised CAS

I really enjoy making crafty stuff with strong messages. Here is a card for a very close friend who is a stylist by profession.

 

I wanted to experiment with paint and layer technique that is to first ink/ watercolor the paper and then to randomly doodle/ sketch to cut out shapes. This method gives you lots of scope to experiment with colors and shapes, plus if you are like me and don’t plan to the T when it comes to craft projects, this one is great!

 

I was inspired by this picture by runwayinspired

 

 

To implement these colors, I started randomly dabbing shades of peach, red and pink. I doodled various shapes (flowers are such a great element to play with) . I used a blue pastel as I wanted an edgy outline which would not be the case with a marker. I cut out rims of these shapes and overlapped these shapes to make a flower. I have not stuck the complete shape but rates only a certain portion such that colors are seen through and through and are different from every angle.

 

 

For the face, I simple glued a yellow stretch of wool. The picture (my inspiration) also had a mirror. So, I also stuck two round mirror embellishments which serve as earrings iif you want to look at it that way.

 

Am linking this to

 http://runwayinspired.blogspot.in/2014/08/ric66-sportmax.html

http://beyondgrey.blogspot.com/2014/08/bgc57-watercolors.html

http://blog.kraftzone.in/2014/08/challenge-8-cas.html

http://chocolatecoffeecards.blogspot.ca/2014/08/challenge-71-bingo.html used blue, yellow and string.

 

 

 

Not-so-usual birthday card

I recently made a photo card for my colleague to capture memories of his last birthday celebration with us at work.

 

This time I wanted to experiment with spraying ink and kraft paper. And here is what I came up with for the card cover.

I first stamped  photo set  stamps and sprayed it randomly to create a background. Later I folded a net cloth, to create a circle. After which I cut a kraft paper to create a see through pattern and stuck a “happy birthday” quote on it. From an old chocolate box I cut out triangles to make flowers and from the same box also cut out a border consisting mini triangles.

 

Since this needed to be masculine, this was the first time I remember using this combination of colors, but there is always a first time!!!  I usually use bright or summer colors.

 

 

 

 

And this is how it finally looked!

 

Am linking this to

http://lulupu.blogspot.in/2014/08/challenge-37-plus-step-by-step.html

 

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/?p=1847

 

http://seemsalittlesketchy.blogspot.in/

 

 

http://sweetstampsblog.blogspot.in/2014/08/challenge-184-masculine-birthday.html 

 

 

Crafting with passion: Meet Sujana

Let me introduce you to a fellow crafter Sujana. I call her an "intelligent" crafter with a unique ability to create projects with fun folds, which are interactive and have a surprise elements. Her cards, boxes and scrapbooks are filled with utilities, thrill and bring smiles. Take some time to check out her pretty explosions Boxes, aren't they adorable. Its amazing how she manages to make time to create these beauties , while she is a mother to two young kids: 4 year old girl and 2 yr old boy (that indeed encourages me to make some more time for crafting!)

She has recently completed her 100th post and has designed an all new logo for her blog. I have become her all new follower, why don't you check out http://craftingwithpassion.blogspot.in/.

To celebrate this journey she is giving a blog candy , a voucher from the craftshop. You can click on image on my side bar to know more.

Hope you have fun checking out her work, atleast I did. Cheers!

Button buttons

I have loads of buttons and sewing materials lying in my stash..I thought of using them in this black and bronze LO.

I was inspired by the picture on Julia Stainton blog and was all charged up to experiment with buttons.

 

 

I created a layout with bronze, black and white....stuck a floral die cut and used buttons, ribbon flowers randomly. I think i have not photographed it too well (thanks to the poor weather here)....but it does look quite chic to me!

 

 

Linking this to CASE Study 4th Anniversary Week #3

http://gloriadesignschallenge.blogspot.in/ Challenge #14 Button it Up!

http://clearitoutchallenge.blogspot.in/ Anything goes

http://paulaholifieldcrafts.blogspot.co.uk/ sew what

 

 

 

Rainy Day Card

This weekend I spent most of the time at home (since it was raining) making paper boats and sailing them in puddles with my kid and really enjoyed myself…..

 

 

I wanted to make a craft to capture this memory. What better than a clean and simple rain day card.
I love watercolors, feels like back to the basics….I wanted to experiment with white color. Hence created a water effect background as water ripples on a blue card stock

To create this texture you can rub a gelato stick (white) in circles, to create a puddle effect you can further move a thin brush dipped in water around it. This will all some creamy texture of gelatos and water touches to blend beautifully. With the same brush you can create drops of water with simple dots ...

 The banner “Rainy Day Fun” is hand written with copic markers and colored in water color pencils. These markers are great as they are water proof and water color pencil are superb to work in small areas and details

For the clouds, I crumpled white paper and dabbed pink which is distress ink worn lipstick to the creases….
Further I sketched a tree and a frog with copic markers and once again colored with water color pencils.

Click on the pic for a larger view

 

I sketched a girl and used a Patterned paper to make the girl’s raincoat and boots. The most difficult part was making mini paper ships each around just a centimeter long....But I enjoyed the idea of going mini!

 

While i wait for this to dry, may be you can sing along "Row row row your boat, gently down the stream...merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream"...happy rainy day everyone!!

 

 Supplies:
Copic Markers
Pink flowers- PP
Water color pencils
Water based Gelato
Low gsm papers to make boats n clouds
Blue card stock

Peach twine for the banner

 

Am linking this to

http://blog.imaginationsonline.com/ Monsoon

 BGC#57 - Watercolors
http://catchychallenges.blogspot.in PP fun

 

http://blog.kraftzone.in/2014/08/challenge-8-cas.html CAS

Anything goes http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/



 

Tag..Going nuts

Made a tag “Going Nuts!”…….Cos this is exactly how I was feeling yesterday juggling between work , hobbies and chores!

 

 

 

I wanted to work on black card stock on which i used spray to highlight "Nuts". Used stamped acorn , spread color with my fingers to create a nutty background. The squirrel is hand sketched and I enjoyed making the fuzzy tail. I used a paw punch in weird directions (after all, im going nuts)

Adding this to the  

 

http://www.lulupu.blogspot.in/2014/08/challenge-37-plus-step-by-step.html

 http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/ Anything goes

http://craftingfromtheheartchallengeblog.blogspot.in/ Anything goes

Word Play http://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/were-into-august-and-new-challenge.html

 
 

Mixed Media canvas combined with upcyling (wall art)

Here is my altered canvas I made for my own home......All sorts of techniques or arts, crafts and upcycling have been used.... Well, I went with the black and white tiles coz these suit my curtains and interiors.....

To start with I took an old window frame of wood which was to be disposed...That should give you a good idea of its size ...approximately 3.5 feet in height....I wrapped this with canvas cloth which has been lying with me since ages (had bought it for some stich-work but never used it much) so it had many creases, stains, tears and cuts (ironing also could not do away with these)....However the task was to use these creases to compliment the work, so I used these patches to gives light and shadow effect wherever damaged, stick accessories, wherever torn or cut......
The major task was to nail the canvas to the frame. Once done, I marked out areas which required covering up or had folds...Accordingly I made a sketch according to make this balcony scene....

So what are the techniques used.........The base painting is of acrylic paints....On the right side (the scene outside the balcony. I have used decoupage technique and modge podge (of course to seal the holes) and intentionally kept jolly light colors to portray the brighter ide of the world!. Have used  some water colors to fill empty patches and to give a sky effect..The balcony railing is a 3D black outliner. I used this medium such that it reflects light and look like metal/ grill work...

In the balcony I have placed some cats made out of paper mache...I chose this medium as paper mache is great to give a 3 D effect and when I put on the light on the wall to which this is framed, it throws a nice real cat shadow.....

I have also made a glass bowl which is a cut out from an old plastic packaging material  and colored with see through glass paints to give the water effect (and also under the light it throws a nice blue shadows like real water bowls).....

Coming to the  right side of the canvas (this was tough as there were to many holes spread across and I have used folds of the cloth as wall corners which worked very well) I have accessorised the painting using some embellishments, buttons, pearls and glass pieces. Around the mirror to create a wire look I have used some paper quilling techniques and colored in bronze…

The wall clock is my favourite….II it’s a real operational clock I have built of an old wrist watch …I have carefully dismantled and rearranged the watch to make it a real miniature wall clock…

Don't miss my pencil sketch in the extreme corner which is framed in an anklet giving it a vintage look.

I really loved the whole look. And one fine day when no one was at home I got this framed on my wall to see everyone pleasantly surprised in the evening!!!

 

 

Here is a glimpse of some of the basic materials used

 

Other supplies: watercolor set American crafts, paper matte finish modge podge, acrylic paints, other embellishments as mentioned above.

Linking this to http://gloriadesignschallenge.blogspot.ch/2014/08/challenge-13-lets-cycleup-cycle-that-is.html

Anything goes http://craftingfromtheheartchallengeblog.blogspot.in/

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/ Anything goes

http://alteredeclectics.blogspot.in/

http://reves2scrap.blogspot.fr/ anything goes with pearls

http://memascrafts.blogspot.in/2013/08/august-2014-anything-goes.html