Glorious Geisha

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

I'm here today to share a little something-something I did while I was in Colorado. I tell ya, the mojo just flows when Jodi and I are sitting across from each other.

You know we refer to ourselves as ToJo Mojo, right?

I'm serious.

While I was in Colorado I got to play with Crafter's Companion's full line of Spectrum Aqua markers. Boy howdy are they a BLAST! I just can't get over how beautiful the results are...and with minimal effort/skill.

Here's my project. This one is gonna get framed and hung on my wall. I like it that much!

I started out with a piece of Spectrum Aqua Watercolor Cardstock. Then, I literally scribbled in the colors diagonally down the paper starting with purples in the upper left progressing to green in the lower right. I took a big, flat paintbrush and washed the entire paper with water...just slopped it on. Then, I tilted the paper vertically and let some of the colors run. When I was satisfied with the "drips" I laid the paper flat and sprinkled table salt all over the surface.

Two interesting things happen when you add table salt to wet watercolor. It causes the paint to "bloom" and spread into a sort of organic marbling that looks like clouds or seaweed. Once the paper was dry, I brushed away the salt crystals. This causes the second cool effect. Little bits of salt remain embedded in the paper and they create a glitter effect. It's really kind of cool. So, those little white spots you see on the background are actually sparkly bits of salt crystal remnants.

I stamped the beautiful Geisha (from the Kimono "Porcelain" stamp set) directly onto the background paper and then colored her completely black (except for her flower--which I colored in "flower" colors) to create a perfect shadow base for a cut-out version of her to rest on. I stamped the "cut-out" version on another piece of watercolor paper. By first stamping the image onto the background it enable the flower and parts of the Geisha's hair to remain on the background which meant I didn't have to cut them out. Pretty smart.

I colored the second "cut-out" image of her with the same color palette as the background, but I did so in reverse order--starting with green at the top and going to purple at the bottom. I did this so that she would coordinate perfectly yet stand out from the background...otherwise, I think she probably would have been camouflaged.

After she was dry, I fussy-cut her out and adhered her onto the background paper with foam tape.

I used the Die'Sire Create-a-card die (Thinking of You) to make the gorgeous black frame. I admit, I did a little customization on the diecut. I cut out the sentiment and trimmed back some of the swirls until they framed her just right. That's one thing that's nice about diecuts...you can change them to suit your needs with just a few snips of the scissors!

If you're just ITCHING to play with Spectrum Aquas (I know you are...) just head on over to Crafter's Companion and order yours today!

Ingredients:
Spectrum Aqua Watercolor Cardstock
Spectrum Aquas (Heather, Red Violet, Wildflower, Kingfisher, Peacock Blue, Aquamarine, Sea Green, Bud Green, Evergreen, Jasmine, Black)
Porcelain stamp set by Kimono
Die'Sire Create-a-Card "Thinking of You" die
Black cardstock, black foam tape
salt

Thank you, as always, for making your way out to visit me here in Left Field!