Spring Boho Circle Watercolor Card

 

I know it has happened to you. You watch a YouTube video, see a cool technique, and gasp. It's amazing and you want to try it right away. This happened to me about a year ago when I stumbled upon Kristina Werner's video where she teaches you how to watercolor through a stencil. Yowza! I adore the look of watercolor and pairing that with the beauty of a stencil was amazing. 

I took the Simon Says Stamp Spring Boho Circle Stencil (check out the makes with this on their site) and liberally sprayed one side of it with Aleene's Repositionable Tacky Spray. This spray adhesive (like Pixie Spray) allows you to temporarily adhere your stencil to paper and then lift it up without ripping anything. I adhered it to the flat side of a 5.5" x 4.5" piece of Canson Watercolor Paper. Then I squished my Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Bundled Sage and Weathered Wood onto my glass mat to dispense some of the ink. I adore Speckled Egg and while I don't have the inkpad, I do have the Spray Stain, so I used that for my third color. I took a round watercolor brush and with plenty of water and no precision at all, I painted through the openings of the stencil with the three colors, blending them at the edge of one another. I made sure I had paint in every opening. I then heat dried it a good bit, but there were still some tiny puddles. I used a paper towel to lift some of the remaining puddles up and then finally pulled up the stencil. I was very happy with the results. 

I wanted a somewhat matching sentiment and I have brand new word dies from Poppystamps. I took a small piece of Neenah 110 lb Classic Crest Solar White and ink blended Bundled Sage, Speckled Egg and just a smudge of Weathered Wood Distress Oxides. I die cut the Freestyle Hugs from this piece. Next, I die cut the script background from an old piece of Strathmore cold press watercolor paper. I matted the word and added a tiny die cut bird from Poppystamps Chirping Birds die. 

I cut down the main watercolor piece and matted it on a piece of cardstock from the Paper Company in Watercolor Sage. I matted this onto my blue card (unknown cardstock). While I was itching to add some shine or some bling, I chose not to as I plan to use this as a sympathy card when the need arises. I never put bling on those because it just doesn't seem appropriate. 

I am entering this card into this the Tic Tac Toe Weekly Challenge #150. I ended up hitting 6 of 9 of the squares, but I am entering under Die Cut + Bird + Stencil. I am also entering again at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.