Summer thanks...

You'd think with all of the craft products I have in my craft room that there's enough in there to feed a lifetime of crafting activities.  And you'd be right about that, of course.  But still and all, periodically I get on this tear where I have something, and eventually, happily, I give in, and shortly thereafter, a lovely package appears at my door.*

Recently, Craig asked me to make some thank you cards for the people who had stayed with him while I was away this summer.  I saw it as the perfect opportunity to not only get some quality time in my craft room, but also to use some recent purchases from over the summer and try out some new (to me) techniques with watercolor. 

I think I'm the last person in the stamping world to get on the watercolor bandwagon, but like so many others, I've been inspired by the videos of long-time card-making experts Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire, and more recently by Cathy Zielske, who is a long-time scrapbooker, but a new-ish card maker.  I have different aesthetics from all three (though I love Cathy's sassy sentiment stamps!), but their design sense and the tone of their videos is amazing.  And I love that peek into the community of the elite of the stamping world, which seems far away, yet real and friendly and supportive.

So, my cards...

At some point I fell in love with Concord & 9ths Many Mandalas stamp set.  I don't gravitate toward circular images a lot, but I love the kaleidoscopic effect of these images and how they can be used together or separately, and colored in, or not, to create backgrounds or focal images or simple patterns.  I also love that they are 9-pointed stars, which I didn't realize right away.

So, with my Misti, a container of white embossing powder, some sticky Versamark embossing ink, an almost untouched pad of watercolor paper, and my new-ish heat gun, off I went.  Once I had stamped the images, I explored color variations, and at the same time, tried to figure out how to use the "smooshing" technique for a quick watercolor background and how to use a water brush for the details.  And after many stages, color trials, and hours with purple and blue ink on my hands, I had 14 cards.

So many shades of blue and purple to choose from!  Somehow, my cards are always blue and purple.  Shock.

At first, I just colored the center of the largest mandala...

...and then I realized that I liked the effect of a more solid-colored background

Thank goodness for the Misti, which helped me quickly add sentiments, and even re-stamp the largest mandala after I learned the hard way that you need to stamp an image 2-3 times in order to get a clean image on watercolor paper you can then emboss. 

Most of the cards look like this:  A2-size, simple stitched border.

But at first, I cut the cover image down a little smaller, and then hated it.  But finally, I decided to see if I could salvage the smaller cards and mounted them on navy duplex paper.  And of course, I like them a lot better than the others, but just couldn't stomach the idea of taking ten cards apart, re-cutting, and re-mounting them.

Lessons learned:

• Smooshing - I sort of like it, but don't really have it yet.  I think I want to try again with more color variations over smaller portions of a card.  And I like the idea of an artful, messy, outside-the-lines watercolor wash, but I don't know if I'm really that person.
• Watercolor brush - yes!  I love it!  And combined with heat embossing creates raised lines that contain the paint into small areas, it's perfect for me.
• Versamark and watercolor paper - ink twice, at least.
• Many Mandalas - beautiful.  I just bought the coordinating dies for the images.  I think these would make the best mobiles.
• Finishing - I'm getting better at making prototypes of cards, and giving myself permission to make many versions of something before I even attempt a real final version (given enough time - ha!), but I need to take my prototype all the way to the end, including final trimming and mounting.

 I hope I get some crafting time this weekend - so many cards to make!!

*At some point recently I realized what some of my need for more craft products was all about.  Some of it is just that there are wonderful products out there on the market and appearing all the time, and I want to use them for my card-making.  A bunch of it is just the regular myths of retail therapy - buying craft things as retail therapy, or to make me feel creative, even though I don't have time to play.  But a bunch of it is the anticipation of something wonderful arriving or waiting for me when I get home in the midst of a challenging environment.  Food for thought indeed...