Fiddling with Watercoloring #TGIF06

So I feel I should issue a disclaimer: watercoloring isn't my favorite technique out there. In fact, there are tons of watercoloring techniques I haven't had the guts to attempt. I'm sure there is some kind of psychological connection with OCD and messes...I don't like to have stuff all over my hands. Which makes no sense for a crafty girl who sells Stampin' Up, but whatever. :) 

So when TGIF Challenges issued the weekly challenge of watercolors, I really wanted to step outside of my comfort zone and try something new. I scoured the internet for ideas (okay, maybe I just zipped through the technique page on Splitcoaststampers) and decided to try the technique where you add ink to an embossing folder, spritz it with water, then close it over watercolor paper. Soooo....you just don't even want to know the mess I made. Seriously. I'm glad that I at least had the sense to start this project in the bathroom sink, or my husband would have put ME in the doghouse for getting little bits of ink everywhere when I spritzed the embossing folder with my spritzer filled with water. Seriously.

I learned some valuable lessons here after wasting probably half a bottle of a reinker. Do NOT drip the ink directly into the embossing folder. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT. It goes everywhere. And when you spritz that with water...the little droplets of water take ink all over your bathroom. I had to clean the sink, counter, walls, mirror...my hands looked like a wonderful background for a Picasso painting. It was impressive.

So here are my first three attempts at this technique. I'm keeping it real, folks. It doesn't always come naturally, and stamping can get messy. But lord almighty, I was having fun and surprised with my shrieks and giggles at the mess that I didn't wake up my kids. 

The lop left was the first one. It did okay, but I wanted less Blackberry Bliss and more Hello honey. So I did the top right one. I seriously have no idea what went wrong here...I'm just assuming I was trigger-happy with the spritzer and wetted it too much. The bottom one...oh that was just a mess. So much extra ink dripping everywhere. I wetted the paper afterward trying to get it to calm the heck down, and just made even more of a mess.

So I was almost ready to wave the white flag when I decided to just take the dang ink pads and rub them against the sorta wet embossing folder. HALLELUJAH!!! Just the look I was going for! Fourth times a charm, right? Sheesh.

So here's the takeaway: ink pads-good, reinkers-bad. Don't give up. Clean up the mess before your husband goes to bed. 

All in all, a very fun challenge for me, and it truly was a challenge. But I learned a new technique and went through an entire package of watercolor paper in the process. Worth it. 

Ingredients:

Stamps: Perfect Pennants

Paper: Watercolor paper, Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey, Lost Lagoon

Ink: Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey, Lost Lagoon

Embellishments: Twine, Banners Framelits