Niece’s Birthday card

I thought I would try to share where my inspiration came from in this post, because I haven’t shared a sketch or ‘inspiration’ picture in a while. I had this pin on Pinterest for its positive message and I thought it was gorgeous, then I got to thinking “Come on, you must be able to re-create it with the supplies that you have…?”

Having recently purchased my Nuvo Aqual Flow pens they were my first thought and there is the Spring Meadow set that has the ‘Soft Rose’ and ‘Lilac Blossom’ pens in, so I grabbed them. However, when I tried them out on some watercolour card they were the wrong colours for what I wanted to achieve (if you look at the ‘colour swatch’ I created in the photos they are the bottom two colours – the rose is too rosey [d’oh] and the lilac wasn’t vibrant enough). So I had to re-think my options. I love purples, so I have lots of purple Distress Inks, but did I have the right pink?

I smooshed several Distress Ink pads onto my craft mat and used my Aqua Flow water brush (not to be confused with the Nuvo Aqua Flow pens) filled with clear water to paint them on my colour swatch. Instantly I knew that Picked Rasperry was the right vibrant pink for my project and Shaded Lilac was a good purple to blend with it, so that was what i started with on my first layer of colour on my watercolour card. Once it had dried it was quite pale, so I went in with more Picked Rasperry and I contemplated adding the Nuvo ‘Lilac Blossom’ to darken the purple – this was a bit too dark and harsh (it’s the fairly straight line of purple on the right of the card) so I quickly smooshed several purple Distress Inks and used lots of water to spread it around and attempt to tone it down. I think I ended up using load of colours – Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord and Wilted Violet – I was using so much water they all mixed together on the craft sheet in the end.

I was really happy with it after the multiple layers and loads of colours had been mixed together.

Next came the sentiment – I didn’t want to re-create the image exactly, I wanted this to be similar but not the same. I love the sentiment ‘she believed she could so she did’ – I am a feminist, and I would like my nieces to grow up believing that whatever they want to be when they grow up, they can achieve it, so I chose this sentiment to go on the card so I could give it to one of my nieces. I gave the watercolour cardstock a generous dusting of my embossing buddy because it’s so textured I knew the embossing powder would want to stick in all the texture. I love the My Favourite Things ‘Well Connected Alphabet’ that came out earlier this year – it’s just perfect to make this card, and I’m sure I will be reaching for it over and over again. I used VersaMark ink and Stampin’UP! Gold embossing powder. I LOVE how it turned out (OK so my alignment is a bit off, but I think it adds to the whimsy of it)!!

Having not given my nuvo Aqua Flow pens a proper outing I really wanted to use my new Nuvo Jewel Drops, so I tried them out on the colour swatch too. Again I thought the ‘Rose Water’ was too rosey so I stuck with the ‘Pale Periwinkle’ and added drops here and there, then left them to dry for 24 hours in a cupboard (so the cats can’t tread in them!!)

To attach the watercolour panel to the front of a 6 x 6 inch (rosey!! ha ha!) pink card base I used foam tape. I really love it – it’s one of the few cases where something on Pinterest actually lead to a project rather than just endless hours of pinning and no crafting time left!!

I had real problems photographing this card – the shiny bits were ‘too shiny’ or ‘not shiny enough’ and I tried all sorts of lighting and angles, so excuse my dreadful pictures!! I hope you get an idea of the card anyway!