share your spark fridays ...

Whoo hoo - it's Friday!  After all the Halloweenie excitement of the past week, I ended up feeling a bit under the weather and haven't stamped much the past couple of days.   A crummy thing to happen when you're in the middle of lots of Halloween inspiration. *laugh*  But I'm back at it today - just in time for this week's spark! 

My favorite part of the share your spark fridays post is sharing the links from last week!  I loved that so many of you got into the Halloween spirit a bit early with me!  Thank you to everyone who shared their spark last week by making a Halloween card!   

Dawn
Pat
SmilynStef
Tracy
Teresa
Lee Anne (and this one too!)
Jen 
Tracy
Sheila
Dawn S.
Tinla
Lori
Lara
Michelle H.


So many fun, fun creations!  (And lots of drippy goo!  No, I'm not getting a kick back from Martha!  *wink*)  There's a lot of Halloween inspiration in this list - be sure to drop by and leave them a comment!

*************************************************************************************************************************

Now for this week's spark!

Every now and again I like to revisit tools or techniques that were all the rage at one time, but have sorta' fallen to the wayside (at least for me).  I've been doing this a lot lately and it's been great to use older supplies and revisit techniques I haven't done in a while.  One of these is watercoloring.  And that's this week's spark ...

Use watercoloring on a card (or anything else you want to create)!

Now ... don't let this one intimidate you!  The great thing about watercoloring is that it doesn't have to be anything fancy.  It can be an easy way to get a cool background - like on this card.  And ... you can use the exact same watercoloring technique (which is a fancy way of saying I just brushed it back and forth) to color a whole image.  Let me tell ya', it doesn't get much easier than that!  My sample this week combines both of those - I did a wash on a background, stamped on it, and then added a little more color over it.

I used Twinkling H20's to color the image from the new A Muse leaf set.  The H20's came to live with me ages ago, but hadn't seen the light of day until recently.  But I'm glad they've come out of hiding because I've been having a ball with them lately.  (They're little pots of watercolor paint with mica added for sparkle.) 

To get the gradient color, I added a bit of orange over the yellow I'd painted the entire square of watercolor paper with.  Then I went back and added the tiniest bit of red to the far edges where it's darker.  And that's all - didn't take any time at all! 

Now it's your turn!  Watercoloring is easier than you think it is and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do this week!  And don't forget to share your spark by leaving a comment on this post with a link to what you make!

*************************************************************************************************************************

a*muse stamps used ...
leaves are from the new set of the same name: leaves
just a note

paper ...
a*muse brown madeira notecard
a*muse bark notecard
watercolor paper

embellishment ...
stampin' up linen thread

other ...
yellow rose, persimmon, and cinnamon twinkling h20's

Comments

[Jen]

Gorgeous card!!! I can't wait for the new stamps to be released!!!

[Pat]

Very pretty card!

[dcorder]

Beautiful! I have lost of watercolor scraps hanging around - great challenge!

[Dawn]

Great card! This was a super challenge for me since I haven't used watercolors in forever... I'm not really that skilled with them, so I used them as minimal as possible... http://youdawnonme.blogspot.com/2008/08/prairie-paper-ink-friday-sketch-26.html

Thanks for the challenge!

[DCorder]

Here's my vintage little witch. http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1030023

Done for a VINTAGE HALLOWEEN swap on SCS. The background is watercolor washed with H2O's. The little witch is from my Artistic Outpost Vintage Halloween set - stamped on Whisper White w/Palette Hybrid black. Then "watercolored" with my aqua painter & Distressed Inks by Ranger.

:D

[Tracy]

What a *great* idea Heather! It felt weird going back to old school stamping. LOL!

Here's mine....

http://eatsleepstamp.typepad.com/tracyc/2008/08/sparkin-old-sch.html

[Mom]

Here's mine! Fun technique!http://southernbreezes.typepad.com/southernbreezes/2008/08/what-a-week-this-has-been-first-the-announcement-aboutour-new-shop--one-little-spark---and-all-the-great-emails-i-have-rece.html

[rose]

thanks for the challenge, here's my card!

http://cards-n-things.blogspot.com/2008/08/watercolors.html

[Lori Barnett]

Hey Heather :) Here I am again playin' yer sparkie-do. LOL My card is on my blog http://loribarnett.blogspot.com/2008/08/ink-water-paper.html

[Tinla]

I dusted off my watercolour pencils for this challenge...great challenge..I enjoyed doing a technique that I haven't done since "B.C." (stands for Before Copics)..lol! Have a great night!

[Tinla]

Hmmmm...maybe I could remember to post my link! http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1033402?cat=500&ppuser=90425
Thank you!

[Barn494]

Thanks Heather! It was fun to step out of my copic comfort zone! http://craftybarngirl.blogspot.com/2008/08/watercolor-spark.html

Tracy

[Lara]

I love your card...so pretty! Here's my spark.
http://laraloveland.blogspot.com/