Watercolor Wednesday

This week there are so many challenges going on over at Splitcoast for the dare to get dirty 2008. There are 2-3 challenges posted per day in addition to the normal weekly challenges. It is very tough to find enough time to do them all so when you can combine several challenges into one card it is a VERY good thing. Check out this link to see the list of the dirty girl challenges if you would like to play along. They are going to be giving away prizes if you finish all the challenges before Aug.1. I watercolored a couple of images last night because I was in the mood to color and I was really hoping that at least one of them would fit into the challenges today. Well, you can imagine my delight this morning when I discovered that the weekly sketch would work perfectly. I was also able to combine 2 of the dirty challenges into it also for a total of 3 for 1. Yippee! Take a look:



I really like how this came out and I am really loving watercoloring! To start, I stamped my image on watercolor paper. However, I masked off part of this stamp with scotch tape because it really has 2 dogs in it. You can see the original image here. I then watercolored the image with my SU markers and an aquapainter and a blender pen. I added crystal effects to her nose and colored the bow with a clear spica glitter pen. I have to tell you how I chose my colors though- Jody's challenge was to use ribbon as your guide for your card and to choose that first. So that is what I did, I picked the dog image because of the brown ribbon and the pink and green were also picked from the ribbon. To further coordinate and match which you know I like to do, I chose the green dp with the squares and used the square hardware to go with the squares on the ribbon. I just LOVE when everything pulls together so well. You can see today's sketch here. If you would like to see some tutorials for watercoloring with markers, you can refer to Julie and Maria's blogs which show everything you could want to know. Keep in mind that the most important thing about this technique is to use good thick WATERCOLOR paper. You can find this at craft stores and Stampin Up carries it which is what I used. The watercolor paper is what allows the color to move and blend, I tried on regular paper and it did not work- my friend Sue is witness to this.

Here is a close up for you:


Recipe:
stamps- Whipper Snapper opposites attract, hero arts sentiment
CS/paper- SU watercolor paper, choc chip, prints pack dp, looks like spring dp
accessories/tools- square punch, copper hodgepodge, ribbon, SU markers, aquapainter, blender pen, crystal effects, clear spica glitter pen

Have a blessed day and be sure to visit again soon :)