Soak up the Sun

Today I am up on the Paper Issues blog with a Working with Water Colors post. 

I used the Sun and Fun free cut file and turned it into a stitching cut file. 

The water colors are the focal point of the sun center and the background, 

as well as a way to add a vintage look to the title word strips.

Here are a few close ups of the layout: If you have never turned cut lines into stitching marks for your needle, check out my cut file stitching tutorial post here to show you more!

The foam adhesive keeps the layers separated and casts slight shadows to create depth above the water color background.  Water colors are also a focal point of the center of the sun cut file. I love how my children's beach sunset photo worked so well with this sunny cut file and water color splash background.

Adding watercolors is easy by using the packaging technique. Here's how it looked under the cut file and photo. It is important to layer the colors and dry the area in between the layers. I use a hair dryer to dry the paper quickly and this minimizes paper warping.

Here's another background showing the packaging watercolor process.  I cut a scrap of plastic packaging and add water color to it. It naturally beads up/pools on the plastic.  Press it onto the paper where you'd like the color layered.

When it is sufficient, I stop and dry the area with a heat device such as a heat gun or hair dryer.

On this example, next I moved onto a golden yellow stripe. You can see slight variations of yellow and gold I layered in varying places before drying it.

I added the light blue-green color after setting the yellow stripe. You can see the small scrap of plastic used for this.

Here's the final tutorial picture of this now dried watercolor packaging technique! Pretty cool look to build a layout design on!

I am excited to see your water color magic! 

 Post your projects on Paper Issues July challenge album 

and have a chance to win gift cards this month.

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Grab all of your favorite swag bag kits, 

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Grow, Bloom, & Thrive

Love these pocket scrapbook cut files by Lisa Dickinson that I purchased on Two Peas last summer before they closed. 

I backed two of the squares with Maggie Holmes paper. Two of the die cuts I watercolored. I added an Elle's Studio stamp, little woodgrain sequins, and enamel dots. Loved the beautiful roses from my friend's yard. The photo layered with a doily finished the center. The top and bottom were stitched scallop paper strips from Studio Calico's Kit.

You are Here in my Heart Always

I was inspired scrolling through Instagram by all of the posts linking to Jot Magazine's February mood board. Using black and white stripes, red, pink, and mint. I also sewed the stack of hearts as pictured in the mood board. I love the pop of dimension it adds to the page. 

I also was inspired by Paper Issues Sketchy Saturday post as it used a circle element and stacked journaling.

I sewed the large circle in black thread multiple times for texture. I then watercolored the area to make the die cut title pop.

I blended watercolors and used some spray ink in a shimmery mint color.

For fun, here's the same picture enlarged and in color from our summer day trip to Minnehaha Falls in MN.

We had a random nice person take our photo. It was a bummer to look at them later to see the falls are only a slight splash on the right side!  Good times!