Grateful Heart Is My Favorite By Far with Koren Wiskman

Hello everyone. Koren here today to show you my last card project for 2019 and I love it. On this project I used the Neat & Tangled Grateful Heart stamp set and coordinating dies to make a "thank you" card that helped me get out of my comfort-zone and into having a great time making this card.

 With no doubt in my mind, my favorite stamp set of 2019 is the Grateful Heart stamp set and it's coordinating dies. Coming from me, that is saying something because I know nothing about flowers. I couldn't tell you what these flowers actually are. To me they are still beautiful but not knowing exactly what they are allowed me to use more of my imagination when it came to coloring them.

I have seen other cardmakers use this loose style of watercoloring on different floral projects and I am just blown away everytime. So I decided that I would give it a try. This card before you is my first attempt at using liquid watercolors to color a floral arrangement in this loose style.

I started with a piece of hot pressed watercolor paper. I loaded it into my Mini MISTI so that I could stamp this image multiple times (I felt like I was going to need back ups). I stamped all of the images from the Grateful Heart stamp set, well all except one I should say... I lost one of the leaf images (begin playing taps). I have searched everywhere. It is actually gone.

I stamped the images using a hybrid light gray ink that will work with water (wont bleed). I wanted to increase the difficulty level, because I felt like I needed to make this more challenging for myself, and make it a no line watercoloring. So, I stamped the images onto the watercolor paper around 3 times each so that I could make out all of the lines. The hot pressed paper is fairly smooth but it does still have more roughness than the smooth cardstock I usually use for stamping. Using the MISTI helped me with this process because I used it to stamp multiple times in same exact location.

I then went to town using some liquid watercolors, coloring the image. I learned that it takes patience, and several layers of color to get the look I was going for. I would add a bit of color and then immediately move onto another spot on the page using the same color. Once I was done adding all of one color I would wait before adding the next layer of color or move on to the next. This process took a long time. I don't mind it though, because I can do other things while I wait. I alway know that If I get too impatient I can take a heat tool to the project or set it in front of a fan and this will speed up the drying process. After the images had dried completely, I used their coordinating dies to cut them out.

Once I was done adding all of the layers of watercolor to my images, I placed them in my splat box to splatter them with ink. This was tricky because I wanted to splatter the pink on the flowers and the green on the leaves but this is mostly all one image and could prove to be more effort than I'm planning to give. So, I used my memo tape (or a post it would do well) to cover the green and pink parts accordingly. I lightly splattered some of the colors I used while coloring the image onto all of the die cut arrangement.  I also splattered some white gouache onto the images as well as the background. Although, it didn't show up well on my background panel.

Speaking of which, I cut a piece of ivory cardstock to 3 1/2 by 4 3/4. This is the piece I splattered with white gouache. When I do this again, I want to use more color in the background.

I needed a sentiment, so I stamped the "thank you" from the Grateful Heart stamp set onto the background panel with black pigment ink. This panel was then popped up onto a heavyweight white card base cut to size A2 and scored with a top folding portrait orientation. To pop it up I used white craft foam and tear tape adhesive.

I spent a very long time arranging the flowers and trying to figure out how to place them on my card. A very long time. I finally decided where I wanted them and used both foam tape and liquid glue to either pop up or adhere flat based on where they ended up in the arrangement. I wish I knew more about flowers, maybe I would be better at arranging them... maybe.

Anyway, I hope I've inspired you to try new things and create a little. Also, take a look at the Grateful Heart stamp set. It has really given me tons of joy creating this year and I want that for all of you as well.

Have a wonderful holiday season.

Koren

Koren