Folded with Care

On July 17, 2022 Kristina Werner Hanson put out a great Christmas in July video: (https://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/christmas-in-july-new-stamps-from-colorado-craft-co-watercolor-backgrounds-no-line-coloring/) Kristina always makes water coloring look so easy but this time I thought maybe I could do it.  I had distress reinkers – I thought – so on to creating from her inspiration.

Obstacles…oh dear.  First off, I pulled out different paper. Would that still work? Secondly, I did not have the color of Distress reinkers she used. Hmm – oh wait!

Solutions… I just invested in the whole set of Simon Says Stamps and got the two reinkers sets that were available right now.  As I looked at those reinkers I tried to find colors that would come close to the reinkers Kristina used.   I pulled out Carnation, Cherry, and Pine and thought I would give that a try.

I used Canson XL cold press paper, cutting 4 pieces 4.5 inches x 6 inches.  Kristina made close to 5”x7” cards but I was aiming for the A2 size – 4.25” x 5.5”.  The additional step of tearing the long edge of one side was done then I taped a piece on three sides to cardboard.

I wet my paper completely with a wide Altenew brush.  The first card I colored completely…the Carnation, then the Cherry, then the Pine.  It came out pretty decent but I thought if I was mass creating it would be faster to do all the coloring of one color on each before switching colors. 

I tore and taped down seven more pieces of watercolor paper and taped each of them to a cardboard or hard board.  From there I wet each paper down, and applied a line of Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Carnation ink from the reinking bottle.  Next step was to dry that strip layer with my Wagner heat tool.  I proceeded to add stripe by stripe of the Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Cherry and then the Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Pine, also from the reinkers to my palette.  I followed her instructions to dry between each stripe.  In very short order, I had 8 backgrounds finished.

I decided to just let them completely dry for a few days.  That way the embossing would go on easily.  I also was waiting for my shipment of the Colorado Craft Company order to be received so that I could use the wonderful words they carried. 

To finish the cards cut them down to allow a small white edging to show when using an A2 base.  I used anti-static powder over the watercolored paper then gold embossed them with Altenew Antique Gold Embossing powder.  For the inside I took another large stamp from CCC Savvy Sentiments -Holiday Quick Cards Large.

I loved the way these came together and plan to make some more, including some with blues and snowflakes.  It is so relaxing to watch Kristina water color on her videos and I am very grateful for the step-by-step instructions.  Thanks, Kristina!

Sometimes we get stuck, though, and think we crafters cannot do something because the supplies are not at our fingertips.  Lesson learned here is to look for what we do have that can give similar results.  I can’t wait now until the other Simon Says Stamp reinkers come back in stock.  Then the possibilities will be endless.

Thanks for visiting – Hugs, Penny