SOA Perfect Reason Collection First Cards

My Collection arrived a few days ago, and today I got the chance to play with it.  I decided to start pretty simply, just to get used to the new ink I also ordered from Catherine Pooler.  I wanted to see how well it blended for me, so started off by blending Something Borrowed, Aquatini, Lime Rickey and Grass Skirt diagonally through the Mod Squared Stencil included in the Perfect Reason Collection.

It seemed to blend pretty easily, and looked good when I was done.  I matted it with white card stock I had colored around the edges with Lime Rickey, leaving a small border of 1/8 inch. I then cut it in half diagonally, resulting in a mostly green half, and a mostly blue half.  Attached them to card fronts at an angle, trimming off the overhang, then stamping with a sentiment from the You Did It Stamp Set included in the collection.  Using the stars stamp from the same set, I stamped them in colors matching the stenciled section.  On the inside I stamped You Are Fabulous, from the same set.

I think they turned out pretty nicely, and will make nice graduation cards or will be good to congratulate any one for their success.

Playing with my kit

The Simon Says Stamp August kit had a lot of stars, including a star die.  The die doesn't cut out the star outline, merely some stripes inside a star shape.  I cut one of the papers included in the kit to 5.25 X 4 inches, and die cut the star from it.  I glued a square of red to the card front behind where the cut would be, then added the die cut front with foam tape.  I used a white scrap of card stock to stamp you're a star in black, then cut it in a banner shape.  I stamped a few stars in the Festive Berries Distress ink included, matted it in red, and attached to card front. 

Online Card Class: Watercolor Day 2--paints

Went back and watched the Day 2 videos again, and decided to try the "dreamy" background.  I used Prang Oval 16 semi-moist watercolors on Canson Watercolor paper.

First I did a light yellow wash, and after it dried, I added some more yellow, let it dry, and then a third layer of yellow.  I decided what the background needed now was a little orange, so that was next.  When the orange was dry, I used the brush to flick a few yellow droplets on top, and then some orange droplets.

I stamped with black VersaFine Onyx Black a Tim Holtz saying, Be an Individual.  I had to stamp it twice, and it it didn't make a great impression on the watercolor paper.

To finish it off, I matted it in yellow, and used foam tape to attach to the off white card base.

I was pretty happy with the way the  background came out with the layers, and using the traditional paints wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.