Growing In Unity: Day 5 ~ Washi Tape & Watercolors

I guess it is true what they say, all good things do come to an end!  This is my last post as the Growing In Unity Girl and I have had such a fabulous time this week!  You are all so kind and inspirational and your comments have meant the world to me!  I hope you will all continue to come back and visit me in the future!  And let's not forget, I will be drawing TWO winners from all the comments this week and those lucky folks will get to take home 25 stamps from the generous Unity Stamp Co.!  Get those comments in ASAP!  I'll draw the winners and announce them here on my blog on Monday!

Anyway, on to the project!  I couldn't do a week of GIU and not do some no-line watercoloring!  This has become my absolute favorite technique!  It looks so magical every time!  I always think the soft results are very peaceful, reminds me of illustrations in a children's book :)  If you are interested in this technique, I will put the links to my other blog posts where I did no-line watercoloring below.

I selected Erica Girl for my piece today.  Talk about serene!  This image is so perfect for this technique and the sentiment seemed really appropriate, too!  To achieve this look I started by stamping Erica on some watercolor paper in Antique Linen Distress Ink.  I used this ink because it reacts well with water (I do all my watercoloring with Distress Inks and Distress Markers) and because it is light enough that as you add color to the image the lines just melt away!

To do the painting, I scribbled Distress Markers and smooshed Distress Ink pads onto my glass craft mat and then used my watercolor brushes to add water and apply color to my image.  I prefer to work with an almost dry brush for the shading to leave some of the color really vibrant.  Now, here is where I confess my card making weakness - I am not very great with layouts!  I love to color all these fabulous images and then really struggle with the best way to put them onto a card.  So, I busted out my Washi tape, dusted it off, and decided to let it be the accent on my card front.  

I kept it pretty simple, adding some grommets (I think that is what the metal guys in the corners are called) with my Crop-a-dile and then matting the watercolor piece with the diagonal chocolate brown cardstock.  I like the splashes of coordinating color the Washi tape gave the otherwise plain card.  I finished by stamping my sentiment right on top of the painted piece using some Walnut ink by Lawn Fawn (their inks are so crisp, perfect for sentiments!) and then used some Wink of Stella on the flowers for that bit of sparkle. 

Again, it has truly been a pleasure to share with you this week!  I hope you were able to find some inspiration - I know I got a lot from your amazing comments!  Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you back!  Have a great weekend!

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Other No-Line Watercoloring:

Faith, Trust, & Pixie Dust
Nursery Art: Watercolor & W Plus 9 Unforgettable
No Line Watercoloring: Unity {be inspired} Challenge #8