Sunshine and Watercolor

It never ceases to amaze me how inspiration is everywhere! Last week I spotted a $2 stamp and embossing folder combo at a big box crafting store and realized that the cuuuute rainbow stamp was *EXACTLY* the right size to combine with our Eyelet Outlet Sun and Cloud Brads. So obviously I had to buy it, lol, right?!

You may have noticed that I often show a couple of similar projects in the same post, so I'll share one of my secrets with you: when I'm having trouble deciding between two ways to go, I'll start working on both ideas at the same time. In this case, my indecision was whether to paint the embossed rainbow panels with bright, full-strength shades of ColorBurst pigment powders, or to use diluted pastel versions. Often, when I'm in the process, one of the ideas will not work out, so I abandon it and keep going with the other. This time, I liked them both; so I was able to make two different cards.

To get the fun "white lines" effect on both cards, I used the rainbow embossing folder to texturize a panel of watercolor paper in the usual way, but before painting it, I rubbed across the raised bits with an ordinary white candle from Ikea to give it a very light coating of wax. That acts as a resist, so when you paint the watercolor on, it beads up on the raised parts... you can actually paint away quite messily and still get a really fun effect. For the dark version, I used full strength ColorBurst shades and let them air dry completely. For the pastels, I diluted the pigment with a little extra water, and then blotted the wet color with a tissue before it dried. In both cases, I completed the background/sky first and filled in the rainbows second. This seems counterintuitive, but it was a game-changer for me!

The vivid colors of the darker rainbows were a great match for this beautiful multicolor Striped Washi Tape, which I've flanked with a fun stripey pattern from the Rainbow Skinny Set on top of some notebook paper backed with plain white cardstock. I attached the Sun and Cloud Brads to my stamped and colored rainbow before cutting it out... thus I was able to leave a little extra cardstock behind the brads for support! This card is 4.75 x 6.25, to accommodate a slightly larger heart shape and "dilute" the darker colors with a little extra white space.

The pastel rainbows were soft enough to be a background for a typical A2 card, so this time I used a smaller heart shape from my leftover notebook paper, and added my Dymo Label sentiment right on top.

I hope I've brought a little bit of sunshine into your day... in the form of Sun and Cloud Brads! Be sure to stop by the Eyelet Outlet Blog for brand new design team projects EVERY day of the week! ♥