Monday and a fresh new week lies ahead, let's hope it's a good one!

Morning readers, 

Welcome to the Bank Holiday Monday (certainly in the UK, not sure how many other countries are also celebrating) - I hope the weather will be pleasant for whatever you may have planned.

I've a make to share with you today ....... do you ever have "one of those days"? I reckon this card was jinxed from the beginning! I saw a technique using clear embossing on black cardstock and then metallic water colour added and I thought I would have a go. Except, it went horribly wrong! I couldn't find the FB reel again either so, I thought I would try again using just regular water colour paints but would use actual watercolour cardstock - this worked great, I added some mica powder (perfect pearls) to brusho paints, to give it a pearly sheen, left it to dry overnight before stamping my image on it and then - this is where it went to hell  in a handcart as it would appear that I didn't give my Versafine Clair ink long enough drying time. As I was trimming my panel to size, spotted that I now had little black marks all over the "white space" - BOTHER! In the end I decided to fussy cut round my painted and stamped panel and mount it on a different card front panel!! Kudos to the original poster who's card looked amazing but you can probably see why I'm thinking this technique might not be for me? Oh well .... at least I LIKE the way it all turned out, despite the route to achieving it!

My C6 card

Brusho's and Perfect Pearls, painted randomly,
except my "random" looks fairly rectangular!

Materials used:

• White, 250gsm, C6 card and envelope
• Card in white, hot pressed watercolour and pearl grey, for my card front, insert and matting
• Snippet of white card for my sentiment
• I taped my watercolour card down, using washi tape, before water colouring with purple brusho and sprinkling Perfect Pearls (to give it a sheen) and set aside to dry
• Katzelkraft floral image (KTZ219 - Dec 2023 - NBUS) and Clearly Besotted sentiment (from set "mini calligraphy") stamped on to my white snippet using Versafine Clair nocturne ink
• Spritz of Crafters Companion spray and shine, to seal the water colour paint

I'll be entering the above make for the following challenges:-

1. Addicted to Stamps - challenge No. 468 - BIRTHDAYS
2. NBUS - challenge No. 62 - USE NBUS
3. Seize the Birthday - challenge No. 284 - ANYTHING GOES + (optional) USE METALLICS
4. A Place to Start - May challenge - ANYTHING GOES + (optional twist) FOR A LADY
5. Aud Sentiments  - challenge No. 313 - FOILING and/or FLOWERS + A SENTIMENT

And the disaster? Are you sure you want to see?

It started well, with the clear embossing

Here's where it started to go wrong when I added
the Gansai Tambi metallic water colours! YIKES!

And now for an Artist Trading Card, well, I thought I  might as well whilst I had that lovely floral image on a block AND my water colour brusho's out!

My ATC
Measuring just 3½" x 2½"

Materials used:

• ATC blank
  
• Snippets of card in white and black
• I stamped my Katzelkraft image (from KTZ219 .. no longer NBUS!!!) using Versafine Clair nocturne ink and, whilst still wet, sprinkled WOW! Super fine clear embossing powder (shaking off the excess) and heat embossed my image
• I sprinkled some violet brusho's on to a blending mat, spritzed with water and then roughly water coloured my white snippet with a large brush
• Quick spritz with Crafters companion spray and shine to seal the water colour

I'll be entering the above make for the following challenges:-

1. Gem of a Challenge - challenge No. 10 - ANYTHING GOES
2. Crafty Calendar - May challenge - ANYTHING GOES
3. Creative Fingers - challenge No. 278 - ANYTHING GOES
4. Aloha Friday - challenge No. 10 - FLOWERS

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend ... we were scheduled to have a BBQ on Sunday so spent much of Saturday hoping the weather would be our friend! Did it work out? Check it out below .... rain stopped play! We moved indoors for the meal but were able to enjoy some outdoor time when falconer in training (Harry) rocked up with his current project, a one month old Ural owl ... currently named Twig! Riddick wasn't quite sure what to make of him

Meet "Twig"