Birgit & Marcia's Holiday Watercolor Challenge

Hello friends.  BIRGIT and I are back with our monthly challenge, and this time we decided to work on holiday cards with watercoloring.  I absolutely LOVE the look of watercoloring, but it's one of those technique's where control (or should I say "lack of" control) is really hard to come by, at least for me!  It's one of those that I feel sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't...grrrr!  But anyway, I have 3 cards to share with you today, so let's get to it!

For this card I started with a piece of watercolor paper, and then sprinkled Cobalt Blue Brushos on, and then spritzed with water.  LOVE how these backgrounds come out with this stuff!!  I used some Casual Friday's die to cut out my snowflakes, and then attached that layer to a white card base.  I embossed in black the "merry" from WPlus9's Hand Lettered Holiday set, and added the little banner with the "& bright", along with a couple black enamel dots.

Next up I used the "smooshing" technique for my red background with Pure Poppy ink.  Then I layered on a Comic Strip Frame (PTI) and a bunch of different die cuts that Birgit had mailed to me. (Having stamping friends is just the best, because they share with you...thank you, thank you Birgit!!)  I just love how fun this card turned out!  Oh, and the sentiment is from PTI's Think Big Favorites: #21.

I think this one is my favorite, as it involves flowers, and is just so soft and pretty.  My background was done with a Tim Holtz stencil (Speckles TH5021) and Smoky Slate ink.  I simply inked up the whole stencil with my ink pad, spritzed it with water, and then layed my card stock down on it.  It turned out in reverse of how the stencil is supposed to be, and I just really, really like how it turned out.  Next I used PTI's Painted Poinsettia's stamp set and embossed the flower outlines with white embossing powder, and then used my Aqua Painter and Wisteria Wonder and Perfect Plum inks to water color the flowers and Mossy Meadow ink for the leaves.  I fussy cut them out, and then glued them to my background piece.  I stamped some of the flourishes from the Painted Poinsettia stamp set with Delicata Silvery Shimmer ink, and then matted this layer to a piece of holographic silver cs, and then matted those layers to a Wisteria Wonder card base.  It really came together a lot quicker than it sounds, and is just one of those cards that really makes me smile to look at it! :0)

Make sure you check out Birgit's creations right HERE.  I know she will have many cards that will WOW you, so take the time to check it out and leave her some love too! :0)

Thanks so much for stopping by today and cheering me and my dear friend Birgit on...we love hearing from you, so don't be shy and let us know what you think of our cards and our little monthly challenges. :0)