Paper Pursuits: MFT August Creative Challenge–A Twist On a Classic Technique: Watercolor

Hi, everyone, and welcome to MFT’s August Design Team Creative Challenge! This month we’re challenged to use watercoloring in different ways—I can’t wait to see what the rest of the team has to show us! Watercolor is a medium that’s been around forever but is experiencing a resurgence in popularity in the crafting, card-making, and scrapbooking world. This month, our team will show you ways to achieve the look with stamps, stencils, and inks.

I was not ready to put my new MFT Halloween products away yet so I kept them out for this challenge. For my first card, I decided to use a stencil and watercolor with some ink refills for my background. I’m using MPD Teardrop Stencil, Sour Apple Refill, Orange Fizz Refill, Grape Jelly Refill, Steel Gray Refill and a water brush to create it. I put a drop of each color on my non-stick craft sheet and alternated picking up a touch with my brush, then stenciled the color on a piece of Ranger water color paper. When I was done, I splattered some clear water all over my stenciled paper. I love the way it puddles and even runs a tiny bit to give each teardrop a unique look.

To use my paper on a card, I trimmed it down and popped it up on a Steel Gray Card Stock card base, then worked on my focal image. For that, and using the masking technique, I combined a couple of images from Witch Way Is the Candy?, stamping them on X-Press It Blending Card with Black Licorice Hybrid Ink and coloring with Copic markers. I fussy cut my combined image out then popped it up on a Pierced Traditional Tags STAX Die-namics cut from Sweet Tooth Card Stock, then popped the whole thing up on foam on the card base. I added some orange hemp, some matching sequins and a few clear gems for embellishment.

The sentiment, from Witch Way Is the Candy?, was stamped on a strip of Steel Gray Card Stock with Sweet Tooth Pigment Ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder.

For the inside, I stamped an image and another sentiment from Witch Way Is the Candy?

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My second card using the ink refills for a watercolor wash background.

Again using Ranger watercolor paper, and on the smooth side, I stamped Cheesecloth Background with Sweet Tooth Pigment Ink, then heat embossed with white embossing powder. Then, using (bottom to top) Orange Fizz Refill, Lemon Drop Refill, and Nightshift Blue Refill and a water brush, I colored my sky. (I have a video on my You Tube channel showing this process if you want to see it in action.)

To use this background on my card, I trimmed it down, added a Nightshift Blue Card Stock mat, and popped it up on foam on a Sweet Tooth Card Stock card base. I then cut several bats from Black Licorice Card Stock using Trick or Treat Die-namics, added some Copic marker colored eyes, and popped them up on foam. The sentiment, from PI Batty About You, was stamped on Translucent Vellum with Sweet Tooth Pigment Ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I adhered that to a piece of Orange Fizz Card Stock using my Quickie Glue Pen and putting it only on the back of the embossed sentiment. I added a layer of Nightshift Blue Card Stock and popped the whole thing up on foam. I finished off with some white and silver sequins to represent stars :)

On the inside I stamped another sentiment from PI Batty About You along with the PI image, stamped off the side.

And that’s it! Thanks so much for stopping by! See you again soon!

BB Witch Way Is the Candy?	Premium Dye Ink Refill Grape Jelly	Premium Dye Ink Refill Sour Apple	Ink Refill Orange Fizz
Premium Dye Ink Refill Steel Grey	Pigment Ink Pad Sweet Tooth	Hybrid Ink Pad Black Licorice	Sweet Tooth Card Stock
Steel Gray Card Stock	Die-namics Pierced Traditional Tag STAX	Stencil MPD Teardrop

InLinkz.com

Cheesecloth Background	PI Batty About You	Premium Dye Ink Refill Nightshift Blue	Ink Refill Orange Fizz
Premium Dye Ink Refill Lemon Drop	Black Licorice Ink	Pigment Ink Pad Sweet Tooth	Nightshift Blue Card Stock
Sweet Tooth Card Stock	Black Licorice Card Stock	Orange Fizz Card Stock	Translucent Vellum
Die-namics Trick or Treat