I will start with a very clear statement for this post. My "one stamp, five ways" series is suppose to be all about the stamp. I love the Hoppy Easter stamp set in this kit SO much! I would have loved to do my 5 cards just focusing on it as it is that cute and deserved the attention. But the kit included 6 of Suzy's Watercolor Cards. These are my drawings and I don't draw them anymore. So they are special to me and I had NO CHOICE but to use them as part of my 5 cards for this post. So excuse my title. Today's post should be titled "one kit, five ways". Are we good?
Here is an image of the Limited Edition Easter Kit in full:
The watercolor cards come from the set called Spring Flowers which are not only my favorite set, they are still available at SSS. You can see the 8 sets that are still in stock here at Suzy's Watercolor Cards link. Here is an image of the Spring Flowers set. I'm assuming you will get a mixture of the cards in here,
They are printed on Tim Holtz watercolor paper and you can use ANY color medium on them. I love that the paper is white. I also enjoy cutting them out and putting them over patterned paper or other backgrounds.
Some of the other products that are sold alone are the Hoppy Easter stamp set, the Hoppy Easter dies, Playful Bunny Embossing Folder and Die (I didn't have this so I didn't use it), and the Easter Sentiment Strip Sheet.
Here are my five cards.
This is one of the Spring Flowers Watercolor Cards from the diagram above. I watercolored this card with Karin Brushmarkers. The reason I usually use the markers instead of regular watercolors is because they give me such intense color that I can't get from any other watercolor out there. And I love mixing colors together. Plus you can use them with or without water. I either apply them straight to the card and then while one color is still wet, I shade with a second color. Or I apply water to the paper first and dip them into the water so the color spreads. Or I touch the tips with a wet brush to apply the color. I usually do all three depending on how intense I want the color. For this card, I just applied them right to the paper and then went over them with a just damp brush, so I didn't use a lot of water.
For the background, I ran a wet brush over the leaves so the colors would spread to the background. I then added some more color by touching my wet brush to the tips of all the greens I had blended for the leaves. I dropped some water on that one spot that looks splotchy. I die-cut this piece with the SSS Basic rectangle dies and mounted on a yellow card base. i added some new Pawsitively Dazzling Gems in Sunbeam. I embossed a sentiment from the Hoppy Easter stamp set in green embossing powder on the top right.
I sprayed a piece of white cardstock with the Merry Mint Mica Spray in the kit. I just sprayed it lightly so it didn't cover the entire thing - I wanted it splotchy. I watercolored the tulip and leaves with Karin Brushmarkers again using greens that matched the mica spray. I cut them out and mounted them over the background using foam tape behind the top of the flower and the top of the leaves in the foreground. I purposely left much of the flower light by just adding water to the entire area and using the marker on just one side - applying it into the water. After it was dry, I added some more marker right to dry paper over the areas I wanted darker.
I really messed up on the Easter Sentiment Strips in the kit. I die-cut them all out - for this one I used the SSS Sentiment Label dies. I wanted to apply foil to them all and I had some Deco Foil that was in a rainbow, so I could do them all in different colors. I have never had a laminator machine or a foil machine that does Toner Foiling. I have been wanting to buy the Gina K Fuse Foiling System, but I'm waiting for it to be back in stock. It works with Toner Foil and the sentiment strips are printed with toner ink so they work with this foiling system. I borrowed a laminator my DIL has that she hadn't used in a long time. It was a mild fail. The foil only attached to portions of the letters as you can see in this photo. I should have just used them in black instead of trying to foil them. I attached this one to the bottom and I added some of the Be Mine Sequins in bright neon pink around the flower. I used Concord and 9th Dew Drops on the flower and leaves also. And on the spots that were drawn on, I used a white Uniball first to cover any watercolor I got on them and then I applied Tonic Crystal Glaze on them so they looked like dew drops.
The last watercolor card I colored, I used Karin Brushmarkers on again. But then I used a dark red colored pencil to darken the inside areas of each petal. I used a white Uniball to add white to the edges of each petal. For the background, I mixed two of the Tim Holtz Holiday Pearl Crayons in the kit. I mixed the blue and green ones coloring them all over the background. It was easy to get them right up to the edges of the flower. I mixed them a bit with my finger and wiped off any excess that got on it. I absolutely love the look of it!
I tried foiling another one of the Easter sentiment strips in the kit. You can see the partial covering because I either don't know how to do toner foiling or the machine was faulty! I added it to the bottom of the flower. I die-cut the watercolor card with the A2 Thin Frame Die and put it on a white card base. I added some Pink Fresh Glitter Drops in Magenta around the sentiment.
This is the first card I made with the actual Hoppy Easter stamp set. Isn't it just the cutest set ever??? It is totally my style. I wanted to use all of the images in it, so I stamped them all with Intense Black Ink on white cardstock. I colored them all in with a combination of Copics, colored pencils and my new Karin Gel Pens - primarily the Milky Way set. I love gel pens for coloring small images and for adding shading! I didn't have the dies, so I fussy cut them all out. I wanted to use the little girl on her own card as I loved her so much. So I was determined to use the other 3 on one other card.
I went with a 5x7 card base so the three would fit on one card. I cut a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper to a 5x7 size and then I watercolored the bottom with green and the top with blue and pink. I used lots of water and regular Daniel Smith watercolors and kept the colors light. I cut it down a little and matted it with a white card base. I added the three images onto the painted background. I stamped the sentiment right on the top left side with black ink. I resisted adding lots of Nuvo Glitter Drops because of time constraints, but they would have made it cuter. Maybe I still will.
I stamped the little girl from the stamp set on a piece of A2 white cardstock. I colored her with Copic markers. I again used some gel pens to add details. I colored the background with Copics as well. I die-cut this piece with the Pretty Pink Posh Notes and Things stitched rectangle die.
I die-cut a piece of the purple patterned paper in the kit with the same die white has stitching on both sides I then die-cut it with the A2 Thin Frame Die so I could matte it on a white card base. I stamped the sentiment right on it with black ink in the top right corner. This is a very basic one layer card!
I love this Limited Edition Easter kit as I Easter is my favorite holiday and Spring is my favorite season. I've mentioned that often as I love the weather, the flowers, the colors, and just everything about this time of year. I had fun creating these five cards and the Hoppy Easter stamp set is my favorite for this season so far. I'll be painting the other 3 watercolor cards I got in my kit and posting them in a couple days if you want to see more examples of the ones in my kit. Thanks for visiting and have fun creating! Spring is almost here yayayayay!!! Suzy
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