An Experiment....with a Good Outcome...(I think)

This week, while away on my annual crafty week-long getaway 

with my crafty best pal, Debbie..

I worked on lots of cards that friends had asked me to make for them...

50 little dog cards like these for one friend...

(in an assortment of colors)

Then I moved on to water coloring

10 of one of my favorite images to water color...

this gorgeous hydrangea.

also in an assortment of colors...

for a friend who asked that I create 10 sympathy cards for her..

using this image....water colored.

( The images are painted...but I haven't made the cards yet...that's next on the agenda)

I am so glad that I did all of the heat embossing at home before we left for the week...

It was really nice to have a stack of gold heat embossed images ready-to-roll 

when I was ready to sit down to water color

I also die cut all of the bits and pieces for the dog cards, at home, prior to leaving...

a very wise decision....

Had I not opted to prep everything before...

I'd have been die cutting, embossing and cutting everything for days, here at the resort

 before I could actually get started with the card making.

After I completed what I wanted to do for the 60 cards that friends had asked for....

I thought  that I'd water color a few other images that I had heat embossed at home

prior to leaving for the week...

I had a new bird  stamp...and a new floral

that I was looking forward 

to seeing after beingmwater colored...

Well...suffice it to say...

I didn't like either...

I'll show them to you...

so that you'll be able to see the difference between these (water colored)

and what I did next.

Here they are...

Not great...right?

and this one....also leaving much to be desired..

The leaves and berries...on both... just looked too sloppy (to me) when water colored 

Both of these images are destined for the trash can...

But....

My markers were out on the table...

SU regular markers...SU Blendabilities....Zig Real Brush...and Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers

So...out of the desire to color the bird and the floral

in a way that I would like...

I thought I'd just do..."whatever"

Experiment

The images were already heat embossed on water color paper...as noted above...

and I used a mix of "this and that" from my stash of markers

I didn't mist the card stock , as I usually do when water coloring

I simply applied the color....from any and all of the assorted markers...

Blending the alcohol makers on the water color paper wasn't do-able....

it just didn't work...

But..... I was able to water color the applied alcohol markers...

they were somewhat bendable....

with water....as separate/individual colors...

In the end...I actually liked both images...

The bird (both birds) are done in a combo of coloring without blending

no water....just straight up coloring..

color to paper

(berries,  leaves and branch)

(this eliminated my issue about not liking the berries and leaves because hey looked too "sloppy)

The bird..however, was water colored...

even the areas that were colored with alcohol markers were blended with water and a brush.

The flowers in the floral image were colored using an assortment of markers...

(both alcohol  and SU water based dye ink)

Larger areas were blended what water...

smaller areas like small leaves and berries were just colored...no blending.

So...these last 3 images show a mix of all sorts of markers ..

both the type of product and brand name...

and...

in the end, I was liking them more than the water-color-only versions

Sometimes....

experimenting brings good things...

sometimes...

not.

This time, I'm glad that i experimented....

because I DO like the water colored look for the bird and larger flowers...

but DID NOT like it for  the berries and smaller leaves.

But when I colored the same image using both techniques...

it worked perfectly, I think.

What do you think?

Thanks for the blog visit!

Michelle.