Watercolor With Aqua Pigments

It’s blog-hopping time!!  Yippee!!  You probably know by now that Brutus Monroe has come out with a set of watercolor inks called Aqua Pigments!  They’re non-toxic, come in a large 1 fluid ounce bottle with dropper (child proof!) lid and blend beautifully!!  Sadly, I don’t have the full set of twelve but I did buy the primary colors plus black and brown.  For now I can mix them to get more colors and I’ll certainly be adding to my collection soon!  I recently purchased this floral set from Altenew called Best Mom and couldn’t wait to paint it with my Aqua Pigment watercolors!!

I started with a piece of watercolor paper and heat-embossed my floral spray using Brutus Monroe’s Coffee Grounds embossing powder.  Then the fun began!  In my Tim Holtz ink palette, I mixed the inks to get the varying shades of red, orange and yellow by just combining Red and Yellow pigments.  I filled in the blossoms first, letting them dry before adding another layer of color.

Then I mixed drops of Blue and Yellow, varying the amounts to achieve the different shades of green for my leaves!  Easy-peasy!  Next, I created the aqua background by filling in the white space around the image with a watery paintbrush first, then made my aqua by mixing mostly Blue pigment and just a touch of Yellow.  I painted on the color with a wet brush, let it dry and then added more or less Blue and Yellow to get the light and dark shades of aqua.  I tapped an inky paintbrush with Yellow around the flowers for a little added texture and then spattered on some black craft paint!  Now I wish I’d added a few white spatters!

I trimmed my panel down with Stitched Rectangle dies then mounted it to a panel of white upon which I’d stamped the floral spray in Wagon Surface ink.  Finally, a base card of red compliments the water-colored panel as do a few aqua jewels!

So, what’s with the folded paper?!  After I finished this card, I decided to add the sentiment but I’d already mounted the panel with three strips of foam tape and there wasn’t full support in that section of the card!  So, I folded a piece of paper, stuck it in between two of the foam strips and voila!!  Support!  😀  This very old stamp by Hero Arts is one of my favorites and it was perfect for my card, don’t you think?  Now, here’s the blog hop list so you can see how the others used their Aqua Pigments!                                                                                                                               MARIE
BERINA
JESS
HEATHER
LAUREN
WALESKA

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Aqua Pigments = Happiness!

Hello there!  Our Inspiration Team just had a blog hop featuring Brutus Monroe Aqua Pigments and it makes me so happy to paint and play with them!  I just had to make another card!  Again, I used my new set called Best Mom by Altenew and heat-embossed it twice in gold onto a piece of Bristol Smooth watercolor paper.

Using just Red, Yellow, Blue and Black, I was able to paint my images, getting a variety of shades  by mixing the colors!  Creating the background is my favorite part, and I basically splashed very watered down Black all around the blossoms then spattered on droplets of water and more watery black ink!

My die-cut Grateful is from AC Moore and I glued together three of them to get the height, then mounted it to a strip of vellum upon which I’d stamped out an old PSX script stamp in Raven Detail ink.  In retrospect, perhaps that would be prettier embossed in gold like the flowers!  Oh well!  Next time!

I trimmed down my panel with Stitched Rectangle dies, then attached it to a layer of white and finally to a base card of Wagon card stock.  I’m happy with how my card turned out and hope that you’ve checked out the Aqua Pigments for yourself!  They’re big, beautiful bottles of happiness!

Altenew Crown Blooms in Watercolor

There are so many amazing card artists whose work I admire, and especially those who can create clean and simple cards!  I don’t think I can create “clean and simple” if my life depended on it!  I started this card thinking I would keep it really simple, one layer, no texture.  HA!!  As usual, I strayed from the plan!  Sigh!  On a piece of watercolor card stock, I stamped and heat-embossed in white the blossom and leaves from Altenew’s Crown Blooms set, masking the flower in order to place the other images.  I then began coloring with my Zig markers, layer upon layer, using a wet paintbrush to move and soften the color.

  I know I’ve mentioned before that when I choose colors for my cards, I try to use the ones that are opposites on the color wheel for the most visual impact!  Blue and orange are always so striking together!  Anyway, when I finished coloring the flower and leaves, I filled in the background with an aqua marker and lots more water to spread the ink.  After drying it with my heat tool, I spattered some black, aqua and white ink over the images, then added “dew drops” with my Crystal Effects glue!  

 I trimmed the panel down with my trusty Gina Marie Designs Stitched Rectangle dies.  I found a butterfly embossed piece I’d made AGES ago, and thought it would make a nice “frame” for my card, so die-cut that with the Stitched Rectangles in a size larger.  I adhered the panels together then mounted them to a card base of aqua.  

Lastly, I heat-embossed the sentiment from Simon Says Stamp’s Beautiful Flowers set onto a strip of coral cardstock which I’d trimmed into a little banner, then attached it with some foam tape.  So much for “clean and simple”!!  I guess that’s just not my style!  But I love this card and think it’ll perfect for many occasions!  

Glittering Peace

Welcome!  I’m sharing another project today using Brutus Monroe’s Glitter stock!  Have you seen all the gorgeous colors we have?!  Today’s card is made with Gilded and Scarlet and was super easy!  I die-cut Altenew’s Layered Floral Cover die (Plate A) from the Scarlet glitter stock then cut Plate B from a piece of white cardstock.

I attached the floral dies to a white base card, then die-cut Peace from Gilded Glitter stock and adhered it to a strip of vellum.  

The last step was to attach the vellum to the card panel, using Thermoweb’s Sticky Tape Runner.  See?!  How easy was that?!  You’ll find more Glitter stock cards and projects made by the Inspiration Team on Brutus Monroe’s blog, so have a look!  And check out the array of colored Glitter stock on the website!  

Copics and Colored Cardstock!

Brutus  Monroe is featuring their cardstock this week and it really IS awesome!  My card for today was made using Lunchbag which is a wonderfully heavy, warm-colored kraft paper.  I tried something new with it today too!  Did you know you can color with Copics on kraft??!!  I didn’t!  But I decided to give it a try and created this card!  My stamps are Wild Hibiscus from Altenew and I stamped, masked and stamped some more till I had an arrangement I liked.

Then I got busy with my Copics!  I used several shades of red, yellow and purple to add layers of color on each blossom.  The Lunchbag cardstock took the Copic ink well and gave me a warm, muted look.  I used shades of aqua to fill in my background, leaving stroke marks to add a little “texture”.

This was basically a one-layer card but I decided to lift my sentiment with a piece of Thermoweb 3D Foam Squares after stamping on a scrap of white and layering it onto a scrap of Lunchbag then trimming the ends.  I also brushed a little Broken China distress ink around the edges to coordinate with the background of my card.  Now that I know how well Copics interact with colored cardstock, I’m going to play around with some other colors!  Let’s see…perhaps some of the beautiful blue Sea, Sidewalk, or even Heather!  Brutus Monroe’s cardstocks are high quality, 100 lb cover and a joy to work with!  Go get some!  😀  And don’t forget to check out what Marie, Aletha, Berina and Waleska have created for the Brutus Monroe blog!

 

Altenew Meets Brutus Monroe!

  I love this pairing of Altenew’s Layered Floral Cover die with the Drybrush Foil Transfer Sheet from Brutus Monroe! Have you heard about the newest collaboration between Deco Foil and Brutus Monroe?!  A custom line of foils is now available and I used one of them for my card today!  I’m waiting for an Amazon order of a pretty inexpensive laminator to arrive, so in the meantime, I kept this project simple! To create this card, I first cut a sheet of the foil to fit my A2 card base and attached it with adhesive.  I then ran a piece of white cardstock and the bottom layer of the Floral Cover die through my Cuttlebug, and then a piece of black with the top layer of the die.  (The lighting in my photo makes the white cardstock have a pink tinge, but it’s crisp white in real life!) 

After I cut the two coordinating dies, I simply attached the white layer to the foil then glued the black layer over it.  How easy was that?!  My sentiment is from Brutus Monroe’s elegant set called Sharon’s Script and I heat-embossed it in black onto a strip of white cardstock, trimmed the end and lifted it with a strip of foam tape.  

This was a very simple card to make and I love how the lines on the foil look almost like rain in the background!  There are so many fabulous projects already made by the Inspiration Team so take a look at the blog!  And I hope you’ll take the time to check out all the newly released foils and supplies in stock at the store and online at Brutus Monroe!  I’m eager to stretch myself with these new-to-me products and when that laminator arrives, I’ll find new ways to use them!  Thanks for stopping by today!