Fall Bouquet

Hello! Hostess Tami here!

I've got an all occasion fall card to show you today. It features one of my favorite ways to use ColorBox Archival Dye Inks, as watercolors...

Although ColorBox Archival Dye Inks are permanent and archival when stamped on paper, they can be used as watercolors if you mix them with a little water before you apply to paper. You can either stamp your pad on a foam or plastic disposable plate to transfer some ink, or you can add a few drops of ink from a reinker bottle. Then just add a few drops of water and you've got some awesome watercolors! You can also mix and match to create your own custom colors, or do what I did on this card and use lighter and darker ink colors in the same family to add highlights and shading. Beauty swabs are a good way to apply the inks to your design.

The design was stamped using Mudslide Dye Ink and filled in using the "watercolor" dye inks...

I used the Watercolor Paper from Donna Salazar's Mix'd Media Stax, but plain cardstock will work as well. 

To add some dimension to the card, I wanted to cut out the design and mount it using 3D Squares on the diecut background. I don't mind "fussy" cutting, but I am not great with a craft knife, so cutting out all the itty bitty parts from the inside of the design is not something I enjoy doing. Fortunately, I have a quick and easy technique to get around that. Just color the inside of the design the same color as the background. That way, when you layer the pieces, you can't tell that you didn't cut out all the parts!

Another good tip for cut outs, is to use a matching or coordinating ink to cover up any little bits around the edges that didn't get cut off, or trimmed close enough. In this case, the white-ish watercolor background really stood out from the rest of the design, so I used Chestnut Roan Cats Eye Chalk Ink to go around all the edges to cover the "white"...

And to add a little more pizzazz; a piece of bronze metallic cardstock was embossed to use as a background on the card front...

SUPPLIES:

Clearsnap Products:

• ColorBox Archival Dye Ink: Mudslide, Coral, Mermaid, Red Devil, Grasshopper, Pinetree, Gooseberry and Squash
• ColorBox Fluid Cats Eye Chalk Ink: Chestnut Roan

Other Products:

• Stampendous: Cling Jumbo Rosehips
• Spellbinders: Nestabilities: Labels Twenty-Two and Impressabilities: Floral and Stone
• GCD: Donna Salazar Mix'd Media Stax - Watercolor Paper
• Woodware: Bronze Metallic and Dark Red Cardstocks
• Beacon Adhesives: Zip Dry
• 3D Dots

Tools:

• Trimmer and Scissors

Directions:

1. Cut a 4 1/4 X 11 piece of dark red cardstock and fold in half to make card.
2. Cut a 4 X 5 1/4 piece of bronze metallic cardstock and emboss; adhere to card front.
3. Diecut label from watercolor cardstock. Use Mermaid ink to add watercolor wash to entire piece; when dry, distress edges using Chestnut Roan Cats Eye Chalk Ink.
4. Stamp floral image on watercolor cardstock using Mudslide Dye Ink; fill in using watercolors made from Dye Inks. Fill in inside areas using Memaid watercolor ink to match diecut background.
5. When dry, cut out design around outer edges; distress edges using Chestnut Roan Cats Eye Chalk Ink.
6. Adhere diecut background to card front, then use 3D Squares to add cut out floral image.