February SOTM Blog Hop - Heartfelt Sentiments

Welcome to our February Stamp of the Month blog hop. If you came from Darlys Recker's blog you're on the right path. To see the entire list of participants, visit Melinda Everitt's post.

I wanted to try two  techniques using watercolor paints with salt and dyed salt to the wet paint.  I knew the large stamp had flowers on the border surrounding the sentiment. so I wanted colored salt in a border and plain salt in the middle. I used Celtic sea salt that I already had and mixed some in a lid with a couple of drops of food color. (Next time I'd like to try reinkers with larger Kosher salt.)  First I made  a trial sample on a small piece of watercolor paper (2 5/8" x 4 7/8") to be sure it would work. When it did, I used it as a background panel to make a small card with that sample. I stamped the tiny flowers from the stamp set and the ribbon banner (using Ballerina ink) with one of the sentiments. The flowers were colored with watercolor pencils. You can see how the plain salt gave the blue watercolored area in the middle a mottled/dotted look. The sapphire and lagoon hearts paper is from the So Much Happy collection.

I used a larger piece (4 3/4" x 6 1/4") of watercolor paper to make a 5" x 7" card from folded Peacock cardstock. First I white embossed the large sentiment image. Then I quickly wet the top of that panel under running water so it was very wet. I painted the entire surface with two colors of a greenish blue, keeping it wet, and quickly sprinkled the plain sea salt in the middle and the red and the green salts around a border. I didn't get as much red salt on the panel as I did on the first one. The paint dries lighter than when it's wet. I allowed the panel to dry completely, then I scraped off the salt into the sink until it was smooth. Then I painted the flowers, leaves and letter details with a Waterbrush and watercolors. I white embossed the ribbon banner onto a scrap of Peacock cardstock, trimmed it, and adhered it over the matching image on the panel using Thin 3-D Foam dots.

I used the white and gold ribbon and some I Heart Us Sequins. I also included White Glitter Paper strips on each side of the panel.

You can get this large stamp set only in February for $18.95 or for only $5.00 with a $50.00 purchase from your consultant or here.
Thank you for visiting.  Now you're ready to see the wonderful artwork made by Becca Whitham.