Distress Ink & Watercolour - My Current Obsession

I love watercolour and have made a lot of cards using watercolour techniques
but I recently became completely obsessed with a no-line watercolour
technique I saw on Scraps & Stamps.
You can check out Nicole's blog post about no-line watercolouring here.

Nicole uses a combo if Distress Ink & Peerless  Transparent Watercolours.
Her finished project is gorgeous but it got me thinking - why couldn't I just stamp the image using Distress Inks and then blend the ink with my detailed watercolour pen?
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I stamped the koi image from the Nicole Wright Designs Upstream stamp set
on to 140lb cold-pressed watercolour paper using Twisted Citron & Carved Pumpkin
 Distress Ink Pads. Now it was time to grab the water brush and start blending.

It doesn't take much to get a beautiful watercolour effect and it's oh so simple & quick.
To get a bit more definition I took my Distress Markers in the same colours and added more colour to the fins before blending with water..

To protect my images before the next step I applied a layer of Distress Micro Glaze.

The final step was to swipe the paper through some Distress Stain for a water effect.

My completed card - I love the water droplets made with the stain.

Here is another card made using the same steps but this time when I applied the
Distress Micro Glaze I made sure to spread it a bit past the image. I wanted to have more a 'halo' effect when I applied the stain layer.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today!

~~stay crafty~~

julia

Remember To Make Memories......reverse canvas

I was so happy to be invited by Nicole & Kim to watch the production of the first sets of Nicole Wright Designs Stamp Sets at Emerald Creek Craft Supplies last week. 

I left with my very own sets too!

Pre-orders are beginning to ship this week so watch your mailbox or ask your LSS
to carry the Nicole Wright Designs line of stamps.

Now on to my project ~ 

I started with a piece of watercolour paper trimmed down to fit inside the reverse side of the canvas.

I used Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass & Cracked Pistachio Distress Stain, with a wet 

watercolour brush to achieve the watery look.

For the canvas ~ i started with a coat of gesso and applied crackle paste in random spots. 

After I let this dry over night I used the same Distress stains.

I help add a bit more dimension I cut four "wavy" pieces of acetate and used 

alcohol inks to add some more watery colour.

I dragged a sheet of watercolour paper through Lucky Clover, Mowed Lawn &

 Shabby Shutters Distres Stain, sketched a few lily pads and fussy cut them out.

Here is a closeup of a finished lily pad complete with an Abandoned Coral flower.

My Koi fish were stamped on Artic White 100lb card stock from Emerald Creek.

I absolutely love it for its silky smooth finish ~ prefect to get those crisp stamped images.

I used various colours of Distress Markers to make some funky fish.

Thanks so much for dropping by my blog today!

Don't forget to drop by Emerald Creek Dares blog and join in our current challenge!

Show us your Valentine's Day projects for a chance to win a $25 credit to the online store.