Living My Dream: Simon Says Stamp Make Magic Release is LIVE!!!!!

TODAY is the release of the newest Simon Says Stamp release called Make Magic. It is full of very magical products that are so fun to use!!!! I have a new set of watercolor cards I illustrated for this release called Tropical Foliage. My inspiration for this set was all my trips to Hawaii. I wanted to capture a little bit of the beauty and color of the world over there. Hopefully my colored versions will make you feel like you are in the tropics! Here is an image of the set:

There are six designs with two prints of each. They are all printed on Ranger Watercolor Paper which works great with ANY coloring medium. I like to use a mix of all of them together - watercolor, Copics, and colored pencils (I often use all three on one card!). My theory on these cards is no rules apply! They are meant to be put on the front of a card base and then you can add a sentiment for whatever occasion you want them to be for. I have three of them colored below with sentiments from the new release on each. I'll post the other 3 colored very soon!

One of the best parts of Hawaii is the pineapple. It is already my favorite fruit, but it is at a whole different level in Hawaii! I started by using my Karin Brushmarkers to paint it. I use to paint all of my cards with my Daniel Smith watercolors and I'm ashamed to admit I haven't touched them since i bought the Karin Brushmarkers. And just for the record, I am not a fan of any other watercolor markers and never wanted to use them. Most of them dye the paper and you can't move the color around. But these are different. They are magical. There is a learning curve and the paper you use makes a big difference. They like some brands and not others, but they work beautifully on this paper! My favorite part of using them is how I can mix colors on one area. I wet the flowers and then I use the tip of my wet paintbrush on the tip of the marker to add some color, in this case pink and yellow. I then apply the marker directly to the slightly wet paper so the color will move. You can use it directly on dry paper, but it is harder to move the color if you do that. I love how the colors move and blend together. I never tire of this! I added some additional shading in the darkest areas with colored pencils. I think I also used Copic markers on this one on the pineapple for some reason. I just can't get the darks I like to have without pencils! I used the "This is Living" die from this release for the sentiment. I die-cut it from two colors and then popped the letters out of the top one and then glued the frame to the bottom one so the letters were easy to keep in place. Then I went back and added a second letter to each of the pink areas so it had more dimension. I used some sparkling clear sequins and the new Tropical sequins around the sentiment. I love this new Tropical sequin mix because it finally has the perfect pink sequin in it that I am always looking for!

The last time I went to Kauai we stayed in a condo in Poipu beach. The bedspread in the master bedroom was designed a bit like this card, so it was my inspiration. Although it was lots of tropical colors, I kept my color palette in all greens on this card. I'll use my second print of this one with many other colors! I used the Karin Brushmarkers again. After they were dry, I went in on some of the leaves with colored pencils to add more shading. I used the new Flipped Thanks die for the sentiment. I die-cut it from a green paper and from white paper and layered the letters on a teal banner. I applied that to the top of the card. I used the new Sunshine and Rainbows sentiment strips for the sub-greeting. I also used the new Tropical Sequins and some sparkling clear sequins around the sentiment. BTW, I like die-cutting the watercolor cards down slightly so I can matte them on a colored background. I think they pop more that way.

This card was inspired by an artist I saw on Pinterest. I loved how all of her tropical drawings were colored with crazy amounts of color. I got the inspiration to add purple to the flower from her. Can I just say how much I love that hummingbird? I can't remember if I even see hummingbirds in Hawaii, but it sure looks tropical in those colors, doesn't it? Plus, using a rooster wouldn't be very pretty and they are running all over Kauai! Again, I used Karin Brushmarkers and colored pencils to color this. Another great thing about the markers is that you can wet the background and then touch your wet brush to the tip of the marker (or color some on a waxy surface and pick it up with your paintbrush). As long as the paper is really wet, the color will move around and stay really light. I used to only use my Nuvo Shimmer Powders for skies, but the Sky Blue Karin Brushmarker is my favorite now. And it takes very little color to get a light sky like this as they are SO saturated! It's good to know you can use them dry or wet and light or dark! I used a white Uniball gel pen on the flower here as well. I used a sentiment from the new Small Script 2 Wafer Dies. I added some Nuvo Jewel drops in two of my favorite colors on the sky - Aqua Plains and Iceberg Blue.

If you have ANY questions about how to color these cards, please let me know. After drawing over 50 sets of Suzy's Watercolor Cards for SSS and coloring ALL of them, I have a bit of experience hahaha. I'll show you the other 3 very soon!

Come back Friday for day one of the two day blog hop for the new Make Magic release. I'll have a "one stamp, five ways" post using the new Hibiscus Blooms stamp set. Here is a little sneak of that post:

Hopefully I will see you again on Friday! And isn't this stamp set SO GORGEOUS?!?!?! I couldn't resist making five cards with it! Have a great week friends! suzy