It was a beautiful day the very first time I met my friend and fellow Rubbernecker design team member, Kittie Caracciolo! My family and I were vacationing in sunny Florida a few years ago, and Kittie agreed to meet up with me. I was fortunate enough to go to her home, see the beautiful space in which she stamps, and receive one-on-one instruction on how she water colors her beautiful scenes. Therefore, my entry today is a tribute to Kittie in appreciation for her not only sharing with me (and anyone else who visits her blog) how she makes her fabulous cards, but also for her friendship.
(click on the photo for a larger view)
I chose to use one of Kittie's Cause a Scene Kittie Kits called The Moose is Loose, which is available exclusively from Rubbernecker. This particular stamp set has everything you need to create a cabin scene. I began by stamping the two outer trees on the left and right of my scene with Old Olive ink because I wanted them in the foreground. Then, I masked these two trees and stamped the cabin image. I masked the cabin and stamped the rest of my trees in the background. I water colored the entire cabin first with Creamy Caramel reinker. I then added a touch of Pumpkin Pie reinker here and there for color variance in the wood. I finished water coloring the cabin by adding shading with Chocolate Chip reinker.
Here are a few step-by-step photos of what I've described so far:
I next moved onto adding some water coloring to the trees with several different shades of green and a touch of brown for the tree trunks. After I water colored the yard, I added shading under the foreground trees to ground them.
I really wanted to create an evening sky reflective of dusk. Kittie taught me about adding a pale shade of yellow just above the ground to transition into the blues of the sky. I water colored Barely Banana and then added touches of Pumpkin Pie for the low-setting sun of dusk. Still water coloring, I blended various shades of blues and grays, working into the darkest shade of blue at the top of my sky. I'm not sure if I achieved a dusk effect, but I sure had fun trying and, since I'm not a professional artist, I'm relatively pleased with how it turned out.
Setting aside my water colored scene, I cut a 5 1/4" x 10 1/2" piece of Very Vanilla cardstock, which gave me a 5 1/4" square card base when folded in half. I used the largest square die of the Classic Squares Nestability to cut the front of this card base. I always use removable tape to keep my Nestability firmly placed where I want it before I run it through my Big Shot. I border punched two pieces of Night of Navy cardstock with a wavy border punch and glued those to the back of the Very Vanilla opening. I glued my water colored scene to a piece of 5 1/8" x 5 1/8" piece of Very Vanilla cardstock. I placed dimensionals around this frame and adhered it to the back of the cut-out square frame.
I stamped the sentiment in Night of Navy, punched it with a wide oval punch, sponged the edges with Night of Navy ink, and attached a Night of Navy brad to the bottom. I used the Martha Stewart pine leaf punch to punch out several pieces in Old Olive and Night of Navy and glued these behind the sentiment panel.
I'm trying to write my postings for stampers at all levels. If this is too much detail, please let me know. For now, I've hope I've inspired you to give water coloring a try, if you haven't already.
Here is a complete list of the supplies I used to create my card:
Stamps: Kittie Kits The Moose is Loose (#KKCS S002); Beautiful Day sentiment (#565-12)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Night of Navy, Old Olive
Ink: Memento Black, Old Olive, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Buckaroo Blue, Barely Banana, Pumpkin Pie, Going Gray, Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, Handsome Hunter, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Pesto
Accessories: watercolor brushes, square Nestabilities, wide oval punch, pine leaf punch, Night of Navy brad, sponge daubers, wavy border punch, dimensionals
