Oh what a week....

      Crazy and Hectic are best words to describe this week for me.  I have had so much going on this week, that I am not even sure when I last left off!!  As most of you know, I have been taking a fabulous new "Watercolor for Card Makers" workshop over at the Online Card Classroom and this one is by far, has quickly turned into one of my all time favorites.  I've found a whole new love for watercolors and learned so many amazing techniques on how you can create amazing cards, using a variety of mediums all that work beautifully with water!!  The most interesting thing I have learned about water-coloring is that it's the water that does the work, and the best thing that you can sometimes do is simply let that natural look form on it's own!

   We've also met some fabulous new designers in this class, who really are watercolor experts and they have truly Wowed me with their amazing results and yet how simple it can be to create fabulous cards and projects, once you take some time to practice.   Free time for me this week has been hard to come by and that's a bummer, but I do have a new new cards to share today, on top of the post I had yesterday for being in the Designer Spotlight at Simon Says Stamp!  Yippee!!

     I have three new cards to share today and these are all card that I worked on in the class.  Now, please keep in mind that I need a LOT of practice, but I plan to continue to do just that and really am having fun learning so much.

    This is the first card I created this week and it combines watercolors and stamping and I started it by created a deep purple watercolor background.   I then stamped on my image, another of my new Penny Black "Dahlia" stamps and colored that with more watercolors.  I have ordered some Liquid Mask Frisket, which would have allowed me to keep the stamped area white, but it's NOT here yet, so I'm playing with what I have.   The idea behind this technique is to basically color your stamped images with watercolors.   I also should have gone with a light background, but this is of course practice and as I said, I have lots of learn.  I created my background using two of my Hero Arts Daubers along with some water.  I used the Purple as the primary color and then took my white dauber stamped it on my craft mat, saturated it with some water and using my paint brush, "flicked" on the white dots.  I love this look and this worked out very well.   I also used a new Hero Arts Sentiment, from the Enjoy Today set that I stamped with the new "Unicorn White" ink and then heat embossed with Hero's White embossing powder, my favorite.

   My next card was based off of some of the technique we learned early on in class, but I love this technique because it's easy and can be used in so many ways.  It's basically created a color wash type background and you can use ANY colors, a variety of inks/paints and can also even create designs in the way that you add your color.  I used Ranger's Distress Watercolor Cardstock and a variety of watercolors for this card, which I made into a "Graduation Card" for my God-Daughter's son, "Cameron" who we'll be celebrating with at his big Graduation Cookout this weekend --- hoping we have a really nice day.  The watercolors for this card were from this "inexpensive" set that I bought on Amazon and although the colors look nice and vibrant in the photo and even in the pan, I've now learned you if you want rich deep pigments, it's best to spend a bit more on your paints.  I've since added this Sakura Koi set, which was recommended by a few of the teachers and is a nice quality set that I'm loving.  I also again use my White Hero Dauber to "flick" on some extra white specks for that fun added look.   This fabulous "Congrats" graduate stamp is from one of my awesome Winnie & Walter stamp Sets "The Big, the Bold and You" ...Love Love Love!!   PS:  I know a lot of people have been looking for these Winnie and Walter sets, and often finding they are sold out. If that's the case for you, then you'll want to go directly to their online store HERE, where this set, along with "The Big, the Bold and Happy" are both currently available!   These are hugely popular in the craft world and they are both awesome sets and stamp so well!   I use Versafine's Black Onyx ink, which I totally love for Sentiments.  I always get the very best impression with this ink...it's awesome with these fun bold set.

  This "Grad" Card is being submitted to the new Challenge over at Cutting & Stampin, where the theme this week is: Graduation Day!!  Come on over and play along!!

 And now I have my last card of the day which was totally inspired by a card that the fabulous "Laura Bassen" created and share in class!  I just LOVE Laura, her fabulous designs and her always fun videos.  If you have never been to her blog or watched her videos, you are missing out.  You can find her blog here and I highly suggest you follow her.   You'll be smiling away as you watch her videos and hear her humorous stores about crafting and raising her five amazing children!

   I love how Laura shared an idea of combing our favorite "dies" along with water-coloring, as another fun technique in class.  Not to give out too much class information, I tried my own little version that was similar to what Laura shared and created this fun little "Happy Hello" card   I used one of my newest Poppy Stamp dies, which are these adorable little flowers "Arched Poppies", and then used Tombow Markers and Wink of Stella Markers as my watercolors for this card    I also then in-laid a black die cut that I crated with the same die.   My sentiment is from another new Hero Arts Clear Stamp Sets, called "Flower Garden"!  I know that I am going to have a ton of fun with this set--there are so many stamps and the possibilities are endless!!  Stay tuned for more cards designs coming soon.

   I am submitting this card to the current "Die Crazy" Challenge being sponsored this week over at the "Simon Says Stamp" Wednesday Challenge blog and I again invite you all to come on over and join the fun!!

  And that's it for today folks, my dogs are not happy that I am ignoring their plea to eat dinner....so I guess I will go now and feed them, before they start barking !!   They LOVE to eat and can smell dinner cooking which always means they want some too!!   I'll finish this up now and have it all set to post first thing tomorrow morning!