Anniversary Card - "Still Got It"

Here is another card that I made last year. Two birthdays together in one card ;-) or 130 years together...

I found this hilarious "Art Impressions" stamp set that I thought fitted perfectly. I designed my card base in three parts.

I used a strip of 12" x 5 1/2" and scored it at
4 1/4" and 8 1/2" leaving the last panel a bit shorter than the first two. I folded them so the right panel folds to the left and the left panel closes the card to the right.

For the front I used a few parts of the stamped images as a teaser....LOL...I stamped and colored the pieces before I punched them with an 1" circle punch.

I stamped my "Happy Birthday" phrase as seen and added the circles with foam dots to the front...done!

On the inside I added two white panels about 1/4" smaller than the base. I used both for some personal messaging...well on the right side I added a few more of the circles and my writing was about "....we are getting ready...almost there...at our age getting ready takes a little longer..." and on the left side we left a personal message. 


Now the recipients were ready to open the final part of the card to reveal the true inside...I stamped the image on white cardstock and added the "Still got it!" phrase that came with the set. I backed it with some silver mirri cardstock and adhered it to the middle panel of my base.

Here are some more close up pictures of the image and the coloring I did. I love to use my watercolor pencils for this technique. They give me a lot of control of light and dark and shadow areas without a lot of fuzz. Meaning, I used regular white cardstock with a smooth surface like our Close to My Heart "Daisy White" cardstock (Neenah or similar works too). I stamped the image in StazOn black ink, but if you are very careful with water and the lines, you can use Memento or any black archival ink as well.

I used just a few pencil colors and in some pictures you can see how I have one side of the body a bit darker and getting lighter to the other side, indicating where my light comes from. This way you create a more dimensional image instead of a flat one. I left the middle part of the faces uncolored, again to give it dimension. Ones you ad some water to those colors, they blend nicely together. 

Make sure to use almost no water on your brush. This technique requires only a tiny little bit. This is why you get away with using regular black ink and cardstock!!!!

I usually wet my brush and pinch it between my fingers to get most of the water out. If you never worked with pencils like this, try on a piece of scrap paper to see how the colors react and how fare a little water goes. 

Make sure to clean the brush in between switching colors or if you feel you pick up too much color. I will have classes for water coloring techniques available this year. Please contact me for more information. You can also leave me a comment here if you like to learn more about watercolors, certain techniques or if you have a question about it.

Tip: If you practiced your coloring skills on an image and only part of it turned out to your liking's, think about using parts like I did here with the circles!