Fall Gratitude
by Laura Fulcher

Greetings friends.  The latest stamps from Memory Box have really inspired me to break out my watercolor paints.  For my card today, I used a mix of Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and some Peerless Watercolor paints.

I love to use Zig markers to outline images and then soften them with a waterbrush to fade to white.  Let me show you what I am talking about:

Step one was to stamp my image onto 140lb coldpress watercolor paper with a black Versafine pad.  Allow the ink to dry completely.  Versafine will take quite a while to dry on watercolor paper.  Next, trace around your image with a light brown Zig marker.  Notice that I worked in small sections.  I outlined a small part of my image and then softened it with my waterbrush:

I work in small sections because if you let your marker dry too much, it makes it more difficult to blend.  I continued the process of outlining and softening with the waterbrush until the whole image was outlined:

It is important to allow your paint to dry completely before painting the leaves.  If the background is still wet, then the paint in the leaves will bleed out into the background.

I colored all of my leaves with red, orange and yellow Peerless watercolor paint.  You could use absolutely any watercolor paint you like.  I simply picked up my colors with a waterbrush and colored within the lines.

Here is a closeup of the card to show you how I finished it.  I stamped a strip of paper and colored it exactly like my leaves in the circle.  To add a bit more depth to both card pieces, I edged the watercolor paper with Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink and a sponge.  As a final touch, I took some watered down dark brown paint and splattered it onto my card to give it a splotchy look that I think matches well with a fall theme.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you have a great weekend!

CL5243 Grateful Autumn clear stamp set

30120 Wrapped Stitched Circle Frames craft die