What IF...

I have always functioned with a significant degree of "What if" curiosity in my life.

I am inquisitive by nature...

I love to learn new things...

I am very hands-on...

and I'm always interested in the "how" &  "why" about things.

My Mother always liked to recall that as a child...

I was more interested in how a toy worked...

than I was in actually playing with it.

A broken clock..watch...or radio was always something that excited me

because I could open it up...and see how it worked.

(So you can imagine how happy I was when at toddler age...

my daughter seemed to be a mini-me...

demonstrating the same curiosity...

and always eager to explore the "what ifs".

Well...

guess what?

A 5 year old still exists within me...

and extends into my "adult"card making and paper crafting life!

So....

a while back...

I wanted to see what could be achieved by using an alcohol based marker...

on water color paper.

What if....I colored an image with alcohol markers...

but the card stock was water color card stock...

not the usual  blending friendly Ultra Smooth card stock 

that I always use when coloring with alcohol based markers

So...

I stamped an image out...

heat embossed it with gold EP..

and got out my Spectrum Noir Alcohol markers....

and gave it a try.

(sorry...I have no clue who makes this bird stamp)

Well..

here it is...

I actually like the "look"

I like how the color gravitated to the outer edges of the image...

forming a darker outline of color.

I should note...there is no such thing as "blending"an alcohol marker on water color card stock....

because..

the water color card stock acts almost like a wick...

It pulls the ink and absorbs it like a sponge....

and the ink cannot be moved, to be blended, on this card stock

because of the wick-like characteristics of the card stock.

This being said..

I want to note...

I won't be doing this again

because I foresee the ink being sucked out of my alcohol markers in a flash...

which would be such waste of ink.

Still..I'm glad that I wondered "what if"..

and gave this a try...

and I

am happy to share the result with you here...

in case you, too, have ever wondered...

"what if"....

And..

the bonus is...

the end product was actually "pretty" enough to be used to create a card!
(I actually had set this colored image aside quite a while ago...
never thought of making a card with it...
and just now looked at it..thought that it was pretty...
and decided that it was card worthy...
so I created this CAS card with it.

Here's one more photo...

so you can see the detail a little bit better...

(up close and personal )

I aded a little bit of gold twine..

and matted the image on a beautiful dark blue shimmery, glistening metallic card stock

So my little "What if" experiment had 2 results...

#1. I clearly saw that the water color card stock acted like a thirsty wick..

and sucked up lots of the alcohol ink from my markers.

(NOT a good thing)

and

#2. The application of alcohol ink allowed me to create

 a colored image

that is not only lovely...

but it was card-worthy as well.

(so...I guess that all was not lost)

Thanks for visiting...

Have a wonderful and creative day my crafty friends....

and may you always be bold and daring...

and inquisitive enough to pursue your own "what ifs"...

because if you're like me...

you'll be happy that you did....

if for no other reason other than...

you walked away having learned something.

and maybe..

you'll wind up with a nice card as well!

Michelle