Love Hanging Around with You!

Good evening!

Were you as amazed by everyone's projects for the Seeds of Kindness stamp set a couple of days ago?!  I am so lucky to have such talented designers as my friends, aren't I?  I hope you were as inspired as I was with the hop!  My goal for the Card Kit blog hops is to give you lots of ideas on how to use the current card kit stamp set and to entice you to look into adding it to your cart if you haven't already!  lol!

I have another card to share tonight that I made with the Seeds of Kindness stamp set.  I really like the rich colors of this card and the layout is kind of fun too!  I water colored the focal image on GinaK's Pure Luxury heavy base white paper along with an aqua painter and my palette of Koh-i-noor watercolors.  If you are looking for some cheap, but very vibrant and easily blend-able watercolors, I would recommend them highly.  Here's photo and a link to check them out, so you can see what I'm referring to.  (seriously, they are around $6 on sale on this link!  Talk about cheap!!  I believe you may be able to find them at Michaels stores too.)

I really like the Koh-i-noor name brand for the economical prices and superior blend-able colors.  Do I sound like a commercial?  I don't mean to, but I really do like them and have had fun with their colored pencils and watercolors again lately.   To help my paintbrush stay in the lines, I stamped the image in Versafine ink and embossed with detail clear embossing powder.  This is my favorite ink and prep work to do for watercolors as I like not only the lines the embossing powder provides but also the shine of the embossing powder provides as well.

A few hints to water coloring this image ... first, be sure to work in sections. So, for example, I first painted the middle of the leaves with a yellow and then moved down to the pot and painted that with a red.  Then, once the yellow was looking dry, I went over the leaves with a light green, leaving some yellow for highlights, but not coloring the entire edges of the leaves too closely.  Then, while that was drying - I picked up some brown and shaded over the red on the pot.  Finally, I edged the leaves with a dark green, blending the colors as shown in the photo.

It may seem like a lot of steps, but really it took a very short amount of time.  The nice thing about water coloring is that if the colors get a bit too vibrant, you can 'erase' some of it with water!  And, if it's too subtle ... let it dry and then add more color with just a touch of water.  After it was all dry, I cut around the image, leaving a white border and then popped it up over the image stamped again on a white focal paper.

Card Details
Stamps: Seeds of Kindness
Ink: Memento; Versafine
Cardstock: GinaK: Navy, Soft Sand, White, All Spruced up, Wine with Everything; DCWV green patterned
Other: Aqua painter & Koh-i-noor watercolors; silver brads; button; EK Success scallop border punch; textile cuttlebug embossing folder; detail embossing powder

The inside is quick and simple as well.  I never take much time or effort for the insides of my cards.  I have a little container of pre-cut  quarter sheets of white and ivory on my desk.  While designing my card insides, I usually trim a piece of matching cardstock to 3 3/4" x 5"  and add a few strips that are still on my table from the front of my card.  It normally takes less than 5 minutes to finish the card's inside and I find that I enjoy giving my cards out so much more if they are decorated to match the outsides.

Have a great rest of your day and thanks for checking in on me! 
Jessica