Faux No Line Water Color Using Peerless Paints

Wow!  Has it really been three months since my last post?  Where has the time gone?  Wedding and baby season definitely keeps me super busy every year.  With that season finally coming to a close, now I can focus more on keeping my blog updated with cool new techniques and beautiful crafts.

Today I wanted to show you a simple Thanksgiving card I made using Peerless watercolors.

This is the Peerless Watercolor booklet. The “Complete Edition” is a misnomer, there are more than 40 other colors available!

If you have never used these water colors before, I highly recommend trying them.  They are super easy to use, come in bright colors, and very inexpensive.  (I got this booklet at my local paper crafting store for around $15.)  As a bonus, they blend absolutely flawlessly, so they are perfect for no fuss painting.

The colors come in sheets or in liquid form.  Each sheet of pigment has a corresponding page with the color name and some ideas on how to use the color and what other colors to mix it with.  Refills for the booklets are available.

There are many ways to use the Peerless watercolors, but I like to just snip off a small piece of each of the colors that I would like to use.  You can put each little section in a small dish, but I just line them up on my glass cutting mat.

Next I touch a wet brush to the square to pick up some of the color and simply paint!

Picking up the color doesn’t take much water, and it goes very far.  You can keep using the small squares pigment for quite awhile before all the color is exhausted.

---

You can use clear or white for this technique.

For this card I wanted to do a no line watercolor, but I do not have a very steady hand, so I decided to fake it with some clear embossing powder.  The watercolor will resist all of the areas that have been embossed, so it’s okay if you go outside the lines!

First, I embossed the Scarecrow from Lawn Fawn’s “Happy Harvest” in clear embossing powder.  I painted it in with: brilliant yellow, flesh tint, Japonica scarlet, Mahogany brown, Sepia brown, and sky blue from the Peerless Complete Edition.  I used the Peerless Metallic in Copper for his buttons.  Next, I stamped the corn stalk from the stamp set and embossed it with yellow embossing powder.  I colored the background with distress inks (Victorian velvet, squeezed lemonade, and fossilized amber).

I wanted my sentiment to follow the curve of the cut circle I was using so I laid my acrylic block over it and simply curved the sentiment as I mounted it to the block.

I embossed the sentiment in Metallic Copper embossing powder to match the copper in the scarecrow’s buttons.

Look at how beautiful and shiny it is after embossing as compared to before!

I adhered all the pieces on some gorgeous embossed wood grain paper I got from my local paper crafting store and added a ribbon.  Super easy, and very cute!

For more information on Peerless Watercolors, check out their website.

If you would like to try out any of the products I used on this card, check out the links below!

Thank you for stopping by!

(Please note that while I do receive compensation from Amazon for items bought through the following links at no extra cost to you, I never recommend products that I don’t use and love myself!  I was not asked by Amazon or any of these companies to use their products or provide these links.):

Peerless Watercolors

Silver Brush Round 4

Lawn Fawn- Happy Harvest

Distress- Victorian Velvet

Distress Squeezed Lemonade

Distress Fossilized Amber

Judikins Clear Embossing Powder

Anti-Static Powder Tool

Wood Die Cuts and Ombre Backgrounds

Welcome, welcome!  Today I have the next card in my little series featuring the new Hero Arts Ombre ink pads.  If you missed my post introducing these new ink pads, find it here. If you missed my post introducing these ink pads, find it here.

---

Here is what I used to make this card (Please note that while I do receive compensation from Amazon for items bought through the following links, I never recommend products that I don’t use and love myself!  I was not asked by any of these companies to use their products or provide these links.):

• White Stampin’ Up Cardstock
• Yellow Solid Cardstock and Yellow Patterned Cardstock
• Wood Tags from my local papercrafting store
• Sizzix Die Cuts for Stampin’ Up (Chalk Talk, Word Bubbles, Little Letters)
• Stampin’ Up Linen Thread
• Glass Cutting Mat
• Hero Arts Ombre Ink Pad – Mint To Green
• Mini Blending Tool
• Blending Tool Refills
  

  ---

For this card, instead of simply stamping an image in the ombre ink, I thought it would be fun to make a background using my ink blending tool.

To get started, I put a brand new foam pad on my blending tool to make sure I didn’t have any color transfer.  I will keep the foam pad with the ink pad for future uses.

Light circular motions will ensure a nice smooth blend.

To make the ombre background, I started by inking up my blending tool with only the lightest color on the ink pad.  I gently blended the color around and towards the middle of the background piece in circular motions.

I repeated this for the medium and the darkest colors.  The medium was a little more difficult because the color strip is much smaller than the blending tool.  The blending tool will pick up a bit of the other two colors, but that is okay because it will all blend together!

It may look splotchy now, but just wait until it dries!

To finish up the background piece, I went over the whole thing one final time with the lightest color to blur the lines between the colors.

Notice how much smoother the background already looks after just a few minutes of drying.

For the color scheme on this card, I decided to go with a yellow contrast.  I cut two strips from a tone on tone yellow pattered cardstock piece and adhered them to the front of my background piece.

I wanted to keep this card pretty causal so I decided to add some natural elements.  I chose to use some linen thread (very similar to hemp cording, just much “fuzzier”) and some wood.  Yes, wood.  Did you know you could die cut wood?  I got some very thin wood pieces from my local stamping store, but any thin piece of a softer wood like balsa would work just fine.  Treat it like you would any piece of card stock.  Put your die in place and run it through your die cut machine.  Easy peasy!  For mine, I used one of the oblong tags from the “Chalk Talk” set.

Next I made the sentiment.  I decided it would be fun to make this card using just die cuts.  No stamps!  I die cut two word bubbles.  I cut one from white cardstock, and one from yellow.  From the white I cut out the sentiment “HI” using my “Little Letters” die set.  First I lined the letters up on my cutting mat and used some washi tape to keep them in position and taped them to my word bubble.  To prevent the white from being too stark against the pretty background I added a touch of color to the edge and blended it in towards the middle using my blending tool.  Then I adhered this to the front of the yellow word bubble.

Finally, I adhered the wood tag to the front of the card and tied the linen thread to the front of the card.  I adhered the word bubble to the front of the card with a little foam adhesive to give it a bit of dimension.

I hope you enjoyed this card and thanks for stopping by!

Tutorial: Interactive Spinner Card

Today I wanted to share with you how I made this cute spinner card featuring one of my favorite Lawn Fawn stamp sets, “Let’s Roll”.

---

Here are the materials I used for this card.  (Please note, while I do receive commission from Amazon for items bought through the following affiliate links, I never EVER recommend products that I don’t use and love!  I was not asked to use any of these products by the companies that make them.)

• White Cardstock
• Patterned Cardstock
• Light Pink Cardstock
• Circle Dies
• Lawn Fawn Clear Stamps – Let’s Roll
• Lawn Fawn Lawn Cuts – Let’s Roll
• Black Dye Ink
• VersaMark Ink
• Judikins Black Embossing Powder
• Glossy Accents
• Liquid Pearls in Onyx
• Inktense Pencils
• Gamsol
• Tortillions
  (aka Blending stumps)
• Foam Tape
• Glue runner
• Two Pennies (pull up those couch cushions!)

---

Okay, let’s roll!

First make the card base and prepare the background pieces.

Cut an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of white cardstock in half (8.5″ x 5.5″) and score at 4.25″.  This will give you two A2 sized cards, use one on your next project.

Trim the patterned piece to 4.25″ x 5.5″ to perfectly cover the front of the card base.  Trim the light pink piece to 4″ x 5.25″ to leave a small mat around the edge of the card front.

Now it’s time to make the track for our sushi friend to spin around in.

Cutting both dies at the same time is the easiest way to get a perfect circle all the way around.

Place two consecutive sizes of circle dies where desired on the front of your light pink piece. Keep them in position with some low tack artist tape, or washi tape.After cutting you are left with a card stock circle that fits perfectly inside the larger piece with a 1/4″ track all the way around.  Save the waste piece to use as a frame for another project.

Next, stamp your images.

Using your black dye ink, stamp your images onto a piece of plain cardstock.

To save time, put more than one stamp on your acrylic block.

Once all of your images are stamped, it’s time to start coloring!!

Use your favorite coloring method to fill in the images.  You can use alcohol markers, water color paints, or colored pencils.  For this card, I chose my Derwent Inktense pencils and gamsol.  These pencils blend beautifully and have great coverage.

Before blending.

After blending.

Collect all your pieces and get ready to assemble!

And finally, assembly!

Using the coordinating dies, cut out all of the images you colored.  Place a circular foam dot between the two pennies to create the base of the spinner.

Emboss the sentiment.

To finish putting the card together, adhere the pattered cardstock piece to the card base.  Then, adhere all of the elements to the solid cardstock piece.

I decided to add some yellow flowers to fill in some of the empty space on the card

Using foam tape, pop up the solid card stock piece and the circular piece on the front of the card.  Glue the sushi piece to the pennies and tuck into the track.Add some glossy accents to the lid of the soy sauce (or even the whole bottle if you are ambitious) and some liquid pearls and you’re done!

I am not affiliated with or compensated by Lawn Fawn I just think their stuff is awesome!  For more information on Lawn Fawn and their adorable stamp sets, check out their website and blog.