Monday, February 6, 2012

Inkling: watercolor valentine cards


I’ve been playing with my watercolors and painted some Valentine cards.
Not a single lesson – can you tell? {ha ha}


My original plan was just plain watercolor cards. I painted them and even took the pictures for this post. I know watercolor is supposed to look “misty” but my cards seemed a little too watered down and plain.


I cut the cards into smaller pieces and played around with different background papers to jazz up the cards a bit. I settled on one of my favorite go-to recycled supplies – security envelopes.


I’ve mentioned before how fascinated I am with the different security envelope patterns. I have quite the stash of these envelopes. I save them from the junk mail and bills and I even have my mom saving them for me. Needless to say, I have quite a few envelopes to choose from.


I love the pink tones of the watercolor against the stark grey and black security envelope paper. 


Even if you don’t paint, watercolor is fun and easy. You can water down the color or make them more vibrant by using less water. To make a free form watercolor like the first photo of this post, wet your paper first and them just dab the paint brush onto the paper. The watercolor bleeds onto the wet paper and makes beautiful designs. 



Thanks for visiting.

Carolyn
 
I happily link at the parties listed here and 

7 comments :

  1. Those cards look lovely! :) The security envelope patterns really make the watercolour designs stand out. I feel inspired to dig out my ancient set of watercolours and do some painting :)

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  2. Wonderful. Großes Kino, as I would say in German, big picture!

    Have a fab day and thanks for your inspiration.

    Greetings from freezing cold Germany, ines

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  3. Well, I guess I'm going to have to find an appropriate synonym for 'elegant' (Perhaps 'opulent' or 'refined'? No! Those sound snooty! LOL! Your things are NOT snooty!) because that same old word is what immediately came to mind when I saw your watercolor-based Valentine cards. Seriously, Carolyn - I'm just in awe of the ways you use simple & recycled items to create truly beautiful & useful NEW things! If my shattered kneecap would allow it, I'd go to my knees and BOW to you, O' Queen of Elegance! Beautiful, stunning cards!

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  4. Very pretty cards, I love the combo of the contemporary black prints and the softness of the pink water color, nice.

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  5. beautiful, love the mix! thanks so much for sharing on craft schooling Sunday!

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  6. Your cards are absolutely beautiful Carolyn!

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