Control Freaks Catalog Preview Blog Tour

Welcome... It's time to hop along with the super fabulous Control Freaks group!  We are reviewing all the exciting previews of the upcoming catalog, which is available on June 2.  You've probably arrived here from Julie Davison's blog.  She is just so creative!

To start off, I'm in need for a graduation card or two this month.  I thought it would be fun to morph the cute octopus in the Sea Street set into a graduate.  He is graduating from school... the school of fish!  Ha, get it?  :)

I applied a watercolor wash to the background, followed by the salted background technique for some irregular dimension.  The grad cap was hand-cut using a My Digital Studio download, sized to fit, and the tassel is white baker's twine, dyed with Hello Honey ink.

Stamps: Sea Street, Gorgeous Grunge, Bravo; Paper: Hello Honey, Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Watercolor paper; Ink: Lost Lagoon, Pool Party, Hello Honey, Blackberry Bliss, Crumb Cake, Black Sharpie; Accessories: White baker's twine, Silver mini brad, Aquapainter, Sponge.

I was practicing with the new In Colors and watercolor techniques, and I made a card I loved so much, I remade it with the new Work of Art set.

The technique calls for inking up the stamp and then spritzing with water to get it pretty wet.  Stamping on watercolor paper allows the ink to bleed a little and soften the edges.  The word cut-out comes from the Walk in the Park II digital download.

I didn't stop there.  I used the negative image of the word to create a stencil and sponged Versamark through the stencil.  I used the ink & spritz method on this card as well to help blend the colors a bit.

Both cards have ink splatter to round out the messy look.  I even splattered some Gold Encore ink on the first card.  I also colored pearls and rhinestones, respectively, with Blendabilities markers.  This opens a whole new world of color coordination!

Stamps: Work of Art; Paper: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Watercolor paper, Champagne glimmer paper; Ink: Lost Lagoon, Hello Honey, Tangelo Twist, Blackberry Bliss, Gold Encore, Versamark, Coastal Cabana & Rich Razzleberry Blendabilities markers; Accessories: Pearl jewels, Rhinestone jewels, Gold Sequin trim, Clear embossing powder, Water spritzer, Aquapainter, Owl builder punch, Hearts Collection framelit, Walk in the Park II digital download, e-cutter.

Skip on over to my buddy Mindy's blog to check out the goodies she has made for us.