Now this is a fine MIX with new Verve

It's been a happening kind of week around here and I'm just filled with inspiration over the Diva Sistah's projects. I really get a bunch of inspiration from all of them. .

So on Friday afternoon I had time to pull out my travel case of acrylic paints and my old watercolor tubes to play in two challenges. There are two awesome components to what I just said, PLAY and TIME. This is just something fun I made for me! Yay!

Today on Splitcoast Stampers Verve is hosting a challenge. It's all about getting back into spring colors using the Verve brand colors + one of either yellow or pink. I'm on the queasy side of pink right now so I went with yellow for my challenge card. Then I used a technique that Dina Kowal (dini on SCS) is challenging us to make our color move with water! Details are here.

One of these days my first supply on a Mixed Media piece will be a camera because I'm not sure you would believe me if I said that my background piece wasn't turning out. I didn't have an idea of what it should look like, but my art id was expecting fun and vibrant in about two minutes. I promise, it looked like mud with a few spots of teal. I decided I would keep playing since it was just going to be thrown away. So without picture proof I'll just give you the base plays.

Prep: Get all my paints and watercolors mixed and ready on styrofoam plates. Tear some watercolor paper down to size with my metal ruler as the guide and then taping it to my watercolor board. Any hard surface would be fine.

Base 1: I wet down some heavy watercolor paper with water and used equal parts of Cotman Water Colours' Intense Green and Cobalt Blue to create a Verve Teal. While the water was still on the surface (shiny looking) of the paper I quickly made long strokes of teal watercolor leaving some spots open to go back with Cotman's Burnt Umber  and Cadmium Yellow watercolor. Which I did after rewetting the paper with a clean brush and fresh water.

Base 2: As that was spreading and soaking into the watercolor paper I watered down some acrylics; raw umber and Phthalo Green + white. I have a cheap paintbrush that distorts when it gets wet. It's the weirdest thing I've seen, but it makes a halo with the bristles. I dabbed raw umber around in spots and sometimes made a swish to color in the halo. Then I did the same with the Phthalo Green mix plus did a few paint strokes of it in the corners.

Base 3: I watered down some white gesso and loaded it onto the clean paintbrush and tapped the handle on my opposite hand over the watercolor paper. I made "star" dots all over with this technique.

7th inning stretch: Can't wait so I used my heating gun to dry my watercolor paper.

Base 4: I used the two silhouette flower stamps from Surely Goodness and inked them with Chocolate Chip ink randomly onto the watercolor paper.

The last homerun: I stamped the Keep Shining sentiment onto some scrap yellow cardstock and die cut it out with a banner from Verve's new Banner Bundle die set and used up some of my leftover paints and watercolors. I also did this with a trim die from the new Verve Scalloped Trim Trio set.

I used Tombow's Mono Liquid glue on all pieces. That is all!

The

Details:
Stamps:  Shining Star (Verve Stamps), Surely Goodness (Verve Stamps)
Paper:  Watercolor (Strathmore), Kraft (Wausau), yellow scrap, kraft (Hobby Lobby)
Ink:  Chocolate Chip (SU!), Acrylic Paint (Phthalo Green, White, Raw Umber), Watercolor (Burnt Umber, Cobalt Blue+Intense Green, Cadmium Yellow), white gesso
Accessories:   Scalloped Trim Trio Die Set (A Cut Above, Verve), Banner Bundle Die Set (A Cut Above, Verve), paintbrush