Easy Distress Ink Watercoloring Featuring Birch

Hi guys!!  I’m back with another card featuring the ADORABLE Birch from Purple Onion Designs.  I think I’m in love..  with Birch, that is.  He’s just so stinkin cute.  I could make cards for days using him!!!

Well this card was super easy to make.  I used the same distress ink colors to color him as I did on my previous card, which were Antique Linen and  Vintage Photo. I also used Tattered Rose for his ears and cheeks.  I colored his beanie with Wilted Violet.  I stamped him on some Strathmore Ready Cut Watercolor Paper. The 3 images on the left I heat embossed with Wow Black Embossing Powder and the 3 images on the right I stamped using Archival Jet Black ink.

I’m still using one of my all time favorite paint brushes which is the Black Velvet Silver Script Liner 1.  It’s a really great brush for smaller images like this one.   After he was all colored and dried, I used a Sakura Silver Gel Pen to add some silver stripes to his purple beanie.  I really like this silver metallic gel pen.  It’s especially great on Christmas cards to add just that little bit of extra sparkle.

For my card front I used Lawn Fawn’s Simple Stitched Hillside Borders die.  I knew I wanted a portion of the card front to be removed so that some color could show through.  As always I’m using Neenah Solar White 110 lb. card stock for my card base and Neenah Solar White 80 lb. card stock for my card front.

 

I used my Clarity Brushes to brush on some of the Wilted Violet.  I was a little concerned because my brush was still wet from the previous card I had made.  I wasn’t sure what that was going to do to how much color came off the brush.  Usually, you get a really nice, light layer of color, but with it being a little wet, the color was a little more intense.  So I just brushed it on super light and super slow so that I didn’t end up with too much color and have to start all over again.

I really like these Clarity Brushes.  I love ink blending, but I always end up with one side (where my sponge first makes contact with the paper) being waaaay too dark.  That doesn’t happen with the Clarity Brushes.  You can start smack in the middle of your card and no one would ever know.  With ink blending you usually start off of the page and work your way on, but we don’t always want the color to come in from the side.  And no matter how hard I try, I always end up with a dark spot, where my sponge first touches the paper.  I’ve seen people start right on the card stock with the ink blending tool and have no problems.  No darks spots, no weird circles, just a nice even blend of color.  But then there’s some of us that just can’t do that.  This is the category that I fall into.  So I’m very pleased with the Clarity Brushes.

Once I had some color on my background, I kept using the card front as a guide to see how much color I wanted showing and how dark I wanted it.

I definitely wanted a light layer of color, almost pastel-like.  I planned on adding my sentiment to the bottom so I also had to pay attention to how far down my coloring was going.

Once I was happy with the amount of color I had down, I used my EK Success  Powder Tool across the bottom of the card where I wanted my sentiment to go.  It’s important to use an anti static tool, especially when you’ve already added color, so that the embossing powder doesn’t stick all over the place.  Sometimes your ink might not feel wet or look wet, but if it is, your embossing powder will stick all over that wet ink.  It’s best just to make sure the ink is completely dry before adding any embossing powder.

After I used the powder tool, I inked up my stamp with Versa Mark Ink and stamped my sentiment across the bottom of my card.  The sentiment I used is from a stamp set by Simon Says Stamp called Friendship Messages.  It has some really great basic sentiments that are perfect to have on hand.  I used Ranger Silver Embossing Powder which I think looks beautiful with the light purple.

Once I had the sentiment heat embossed, I basically just had to bring it all together.  I decided to add some craft foam to the back of the card front to give it a little dimension.

I just took a scrap piece of craft foam and using the same stitched hillside border, I cut the craft foam and added some Be Creative double sided adhesive to either side of it.

It felt like the top of the card was missing something so I added a bow using some white and silver twine.  It’s one of my go to twine’s, I really like it. It looks good with just about anything.  I purchased the twine from Target, but it’s no longer available.  You can find silver twine on Amazon or many other places though, I’m sure.  I added a Tiny Glue Dot to the back of the bow to keep it from moving.

So that cute little Birch didn’t look like he was floating in mid air, I added a little ground/shadow using my copic markers.  I used some warm grays W00, W0 and W1.

Once I had somewhere to place Birch, I used my Ranger Multi Medium Matte to glue him in place.  That way I’d have a little wiggle room before he dried.  I love using Multi Matte simply because it dries clear.

And that’s all there is to it!!!  Wasn’t that easy?  I could use this little bunny every single day and never grow tired of him.  Well, I hope you liked my card.  If you have any questions or just wanna say hello, please leave me a comment below and as always if you’d like to see me making this card, please check out my YouTube video by clicking here.  Thank you so much ladies for your support.  I just love hearing from you.  Until next time…