Crafty Secrets and Tattered Angels March Mix

Happy MONDAY morning to everyone! Today is my birthday and I have the DAY OFF! No one should have to work on their birthday, so I took a day of vacation! YIPPIE! Today I have a tutorial for you for the Crafty Secrets/Tattered Angels March Mix challenge, that has been going on all month. We have teamed up with the Tattered Angels design team to create some fun projects with Crafty Secrets and Tattered Angels products!




I first have to tell you that I was COMPLETELY inspired by Anna Wight's card HERE; her beautiful watercoloring inspired me to pull out Crafty Secret's "Garden Girls" set and try my hand at coloring these beautiful spring girl images. Anna is a master at watercoloring, so I'm not even going to ATTEMPT to copy her, because I do not have the skills! But I wanted to show you guys a cool, easy technique to get a great 'expressionistic watercolor' type background, that is easy and simple for a beginner or novice to accomplish.


Here's what you'll need:

A grass colored & sky colored ink (I used Stampin Up Certainly Celery & Soft Sky)

A solid background stamp (I used Hero Arts Aged Background Block)

Tattered Angels Honey Dew & Patina colored glimmer mist

Stamp off your images onto white cardstock. I always use Neenah Solar White now, for everything I do. I used Brilliance Black Ink and then heat-set the ink with my heat gun. (Brilliance is a waterproof ink...important because we don't want the black ink to bleed.) I also stamped off another image on copy paper for my 'mask' & cut it out. I'm not going to worry about the trees or the rest of the images, just my focal point, which is the girl. Place your mask over the girl. This will protect her from getting waterlogged.


Let's start with the sky. Take your blue ink (SU soft sky) and ink up part of the background block.











Now lightly 'spritz' the Patina-blue colored glimmer mist across the block.

Stamp the block across the top of your image. Your paper will curl slightly; take your heat gun and run it across the paper until the glimmer mist dries.

Now do the same thing with the celery green ink. Ink up the block, then spritz Honey dew-green colored glimmer mist. Stamp it onto the bottom half of your image.

Take the heat gun and run it across your image again. Your sky and grass will have a cool shimmer to it! I think you may be able to see it if you click onto the next photo and look at the close-up (you can see the glimmer and how Copics will cover over the top of the glimmer misted bench and pots.

Now take your Copic markers and color your images in! I used "Sand" color for the potting bench and brown (E08) for the clay pots.

Continue coloring your images until a bright and beautiful scene evolves! My favorite dark brown Copic for trees is "Light Walnut", and leaves are done in Spring Dim Green. Dress colors are "Buttercup Yellow & Golden Yellow".

I have another project for this challenge that I'll post soon. In the meantime, check out more new projects on the following design team blogs:

Linda Duke
Lauren Ferguson
Tricia Ladouceur


Plus, there are grand finale give-aways on the Crafty Secrets and Tattered Angels blogs! Stop over and get entered to win some great products!

Crafty Secrets Blog
Tattered Angels Blog

Happy Monday!

L.