Thanks With Colorburts

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Today, I will be creating a card with an Altenew Thanks die. There is a lot to be thankful for these days, you can never have too many thank you cards on hand. I will be using Ken Oliver Color Bursts to water color my image. I forgot how much I love painting with these Color Bursts, the colors are so rich and vibrant and make water coloring a breeze! Color Bursts are highly pigmented powders that when mixed with water can be used to watercolor. The powder can be mixed with water in a pallet, or like I do, you can add to small wells, add a little bit of water and let air dry to create pans that can be dabbed with water brushes or paintbrushes to apply to your projects. Powders can also be added directly to cardstock then sprayed with water for a burst of color. Let's get started!!

I will be doing all of my work on my Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat.

To start, I take my Stitched Rectangle Die and cut a panel out of Tim Holtz Watercolor Cardstock, running them through my Big Shot Die Cut Machine. Next, I lay my panel into my MISTI Stamp Positioner and prep it using my Anti Static Powder Bag. I take an image from the Precious Peony Stamp Set, ink it with Versamark Embossing Ink and stamp the image onto my panel using my MISTI, because of the texture of the watercolor cardstock, I stamp my image two times to be sure I get a good impression. I then add Detail Gold Embossing Powder and heat set with my Heat Tool.

Now it's time to color my image. I will be using Ken Oliver Color Bursts for all of my coloring. *My powders are hardened into small pans so when I use them, all I have to do is dab with a damp brush and I'm ready to paint.
I will be using two Water Brushes, one for applying color, the other for adding water and blending. I will also use a paper towel to remove color from my brush when needed and to remove water as I don't want my brush to be too wet, just damp.
I start by wetting one of the petals on the flower then add a little Turquoise Color Burst to the base of the petal. The color starts to spread out in reaction to the water, I help it to spread where I want it with a damp water brush, pulling it out toward the end of the petal. I repeat this process with each petal until my flower is complete. I like to add my color to the base of each petal then pull out and fade toward the tip. If the brush becomes too dry, I gently squeeze the barrel to release more water, dabbing onto a paper towel so it isn't too wet and continue on.

Next, I work on the leaves using the same process. I wet the leaf, then add Olive Green Color Burst to the base and blend out toward the tips.

Once my coloring is finished, I add some spatters over the panel using a small paintbrush dipped into the same Turquoise Color Burst, I also add spatters of Gold Paint the same way.

Next, I cut a slightly larger piece of Storm Clouds Cardstock using my Tim Holtz Guillotine Paper Trimmer and mount my water colored panel onto it using Double Sided Adhesive Tape. Taking a panel of Peacock Cardstock and my largest Stitched Rectangle Die, I run them through my Big Shot Die Cut Machine. I then adhere this panel onto a Peacock Cardstock card base. To add a little dimension and separation to my card, I add a slightly smaller piece of Double Sided Adhesive Foam Sheet to the back of my water colored panel. I remove the release paper and adhere down to my card base.

I now take my Fancy Thanks Die and cut out of Storm Clouds Cardstock two times and once out of Gold Mirror Cardstock running them through my Big Shot Die Cut Machine. I then stack and glue the die cuts together with the gold die cut on top. Next, I take my Leafy Branch Die, I cut out of Vellum and glue onto the back of my stacked thanks die cut using Liquid Glue. *I cut this die cut in half so I could mount it the way I wanted.

To finish off my card I use Liquid Glue to adhere my thanks die onto the bottom of my card, I then add Water Droplets also with Liquid Glue and this completes my card.

When I added the largest water droplet on the lower right side of the panel, the Color Burst bled a little when it came in contact with the liquid glue. In hindsight, I would have adhered the droplet over an area with no Color Burst.
Whether you are an avid water colorist or just trying it for the first time, you cannot go wrong with Color Bursts. When adding these pigments to wet images the color moves on it's own and does most of the work for you!


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Happy Stamping!!
Jeannie