A good friend, Susan, who is a member of our Stamp Club, shared a few cards she had seen on Pinterest and asked me to show the group how to make the design.  I’m sure you’ve seen the gorgeous cards on Pinterest that have the Beautiful You lady walking on the paved street of the Mediterranean Moments image.  Well – you get to see one more!

Below is the card that we made at our recent Stamp Club.  I wanted to only focus on the stamped images, watercolored inks, and the framing around the picture.  That means the sentiment is stamped on the inside of the card.

Here are the directions for the card:

1. Start with a 6″ x 4 1/2″ piece of watercolor paper.  Stamp the image of the lady walking with the umbrella from the Beautiful You stamp set about 1″ from the bottom and 2 1/2″ from the right of the watercolor paper.  I used Archival Black Ink to stamp the image.
2. Stamp the same image onto a scrap piece of paper or large piece of Post-It note.  I like using the Post-It note since there is adhesive already on the back of the Post-It note.  The Post-It note is also made of very thin paper that works well for masking.  Cut out the image, and adhere it over the image that is stamped on the watercolor paper.
3. Use the largest image from the Mediterranean Moments stamp set and Archival Black Ink to stamp the image directly over the covered (masked) lady stamp.  Essentially, this technique blocks ink from being stamped over the lady image.
4. Take the scrap paper or Post-It note off to reveal the image.  It’s an amazing three dimensional effect!
5. Watercolor the image with your choice of color.  I do recommend that you color either the dress or umbrella in color that you are going to use as the main color of your card frame.  In the picture above, I used Peekaboo Peach for the umbrella and the main background card frame.
6. Here is a great tip for watercoloring – Use an acrylic block as your palette.  Use your Stampin’ Markers and “scribble” color onto the acrylic block.  An Aqua Painter is my tool of choice to pick up color from the acrylic block and apply it to the image.  The great thing about this technique is that even if the “scribbled” ink dries on the acrylic block, you can reactivate the ink with the Aqua Painter.  I’ve left the acrylic block for a few days and come back to finish the card with no problem.
7. Cut a piece of acetate to 3 3/8″ x 4 1/2″.  Place the acetate over the stamped image, and mark a light pencil line all around the acetate onto the watercolor paper.  This will identify where you need to trim the watercolor piece.
8. Finish your card with multi-layers of framing.  The Basic Black cardstock frame is cut to 3 5/8″ x 4 5/8″.  Adhere the watercolor image directly to the black frame piece.
9. Adhere a piece of 4″ x 5 1/4″ of Peekaboo Peach cardstock to the card base.  The card base is Whisper White cardstock cut to 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″, scored at 4 1/4″ on the 11″ side.
10. Use dimensionals to adhere the black frame piece to the Peekaboo Peach piece.
11. If you want to add a sentiment to the inside, I recommend “Wishing you brighter days to come” from the Beautiful You stamp set.  I used Archival Black Ink to stamp the sentiment.

First, I hope you like my take on this card.  And, I hope that you will use your acrylic blocks as ink palettes.

My parting comment – Go check your stamp stash to see if you have stamps that you have to use in this type of masking.  I bet you’ll look at your stamps in a different way!  Enjoy!

Happy stamping,
Laurie

Below are the featured products that I used to make the card.  Click on any image, and you’ll go to my on-line store.