Watercolor flowers

Using a stamp to create a soft water color appearance is far easier than it appears. There are several ways to achieve this "look". I will try to explain all the methods that I have used and in the next few days show you the results.

First you need a stamp. I love the Hero Arts line of florals. These are rather bold stamps and work well for this technique.

1. Mist your stamp lightly.

2. Color directly on the stamp with water soluble

oil pastels. I found the Portfolio Series at

Staples to be inexpensive and they work well.

3. Mist the stamp again.

4. Stamp on paper of choice. Now if the image is too dark mist and stamp again, without

recoloring.

5. You can mist and stamp to create a shadow image as well.

Play with the technique on scrap paper until you find the amount of color applied and the water misting that works best for you.

I used two colors on the flower and one green on the stem.

The words are computer generated, punched out and edged with a gold leaf Krylon pen.

The flower image was cut into an oval using a Coluzzle template and it to was edged with the Krylon pen.

Iris Fold Heart

Iris folding is relatively easy and the results can be stunning. This design was made using washi paper that was folded and the edges gilded with a Krylon gold leafing pen.

The gold edging on the black frame and the washi strip is gold wrapping paper cut with a deckle decorative scissors. Now is the time to buy your gold gift wrap to use in paper crafting. All the Christmas gift wraps are hitting the stores. (well, I will admit some stores have had this Christmas product on the shelves since July, who do they even wear it out putting it away and then dragging back out again six months later, just leave it out year round?) This website has some patterns and instructions for iris folding, click here. Here are some good instructions at this site as well. There are several videos also available here and here.