A Honey of a Holiday

Don't we all have grand plans at the beginning of a three-day weekend?  I had visions of stamping for hours and hours.  Well, I did get to stamp, but I spent a fair amount of time doing chores, sleeping and spending time with friends and family and that is how it should be be afterall.  I put together this bit of a tutorial for you.  I hope you like it.

I started out with this lovely set called "Honey Bear" that I purchased on ebay a few years ago.  With the multitude of new stamp sets to choose from, I'm still drawn to the older stamp designs.  They have such charm.

I ended up using all the images from this set for my card.  I stamped in Stazon Brown on watercolor paper and then stamped my main image on a large Post-It note for masking. 

I cut out my masking image with a small pair of detail scissors (believe me, the size of your scissors can make a difference in tight, detailed areas).  I added a bit more temporary adhesive to my mask and placed it over my main image.  You can see how my mask is cut slightly inside the lines; this is to eliminate any white areas when we add our next techinique.  Now, we need to add some fluffy clouds.

I used an SU scallop circle punch with another Post-It to create my cloud template.  Now, you can use any round or oval shape you would like.  I've also cut my own cloud shape freehand to make my clouds as well.

Again, I added a little more temporary adhesive to my template and placed it randomly in the "sky" area of my main image.  I then used a sponge and Bashful Blue ink to "pounce" the sponge around the template. Continue moving your template around, including over areas you have already sponged, until you are happy with the result.  I must say that this technique is not my original idea.  I learned it a few years ago at Splitcoast Stampers.  It's made it's way around in many forms and I'm not sure who originated it.  If any of you know the artist who came up with this, please let me know, so I can give them credit.

Now, remove your mask, and we'll continue with coloring our image.  I'm using SU watercolor markers for this image.  I normally use SU re-inkers to watercolor, but this is much faster.  I use both the brush tip and the writing tip to "shadow" the areas where I want color.  Keep in mind that the area you are adding color is where the sun would not be hitting, thus a shadow.  For the fence, since we want a white fence, we are just going to add shadows of gray in areas. We are then going to use a waterbrush to blend our colors, starting with the lightest shades and ending with the deeper colors, such as orange or red, allowing the different areas to dry before moving on.  Be sure to clean you brush on paper towel often.

And here is the finished card.  I added another honey bear, flying overhead.  He has been watercolored in the same fashion and cut out.  I added some Crystal Effects to his wings and honey jar.  Then, of course, I added the hive, flowers and sentiment to the top of the card.  I finished everything off with some DP from DCWV and a ribbon-tied button.

I hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend and are ready to attack your work week.  On that note, I better go get ready.

Til Next Time,