One Layer Wonders | Craftin Desert Divas

I’m over on the Craftin Desert Divas blog today with an exciting tutorial to show how I created a cute one layer Halloween card without any masking.

I used the adorable Spell Time Monkey digi from the September release as the focus of my card. I started by printing it out onto some watercolor paper.  I used the highest quality print setting for this to get maximum ink because I wanted to heat emboss the lines, and using more ink helps it to stay wet longer to hold the embossing powder. As soon as the image was printed I sprinkled it with clear embossing powder and heat set it.

I started the coloring of the image by creating my background. First I used a wet paintbrush to dampen the area all around the image. I just used clear water and made sure to get the paper wet all around each of the image elements, but leaving the image itself dry.

Once I was happy with the area I started sprinkling on Brusho powder. The Brusho reacts when hitting the water, causing the color to spread. I was able to tap of any powder from the dry areas so that the color did not develop in the areas I didn’t want it. I started with Sea Green Brusho, and then added some Grey and Black to deepen the colour and create the galaxy look I was after.

At first I had only wet the paper in the area directly around the image, but after applying my initial color I decided to extend the background to cover the entire front of the card. I did this by just adding more water to allow the color to move further. I kept adding more Brusho powder until I was happy with the depth of the colour. I then used my heat gun to speed up the drying time.

I added water splatter over my image and allowed it to sit for a little while before picking up with a paper towel to create some lighter areas as if they were distant stars. I then used some white gold paint to add more splatters as more stars.

Having my background complete, and making sure to tap any loose powder off of the card, I started to paint my image. I used Gansai Tambi watercolor paints for this. I started by painting the moon and ghost with the same white gold I had used for my splattered stars. I then used yellow gold for the stars.

As the image I used is a Halloween type image I went with purple for the outfit to continue the Halloween theme. I used a bright green for the contrasting band of the hat. The broom handle, brush of the broom and monkey herself are all brown, but I chose to use some different shades of brown to help differentiate between them.

There were some areas that the background color had got onto the image. I was able to pick some of it up prior to painting by wetting it and picking it up with a paper towel. Most of the rest was covered with the paint when I colored the image. The moon and ghost however were not coming up as white as I would have liked, so I went over them with a white gel pen to brighten them up.

Having completed my painting all that was left to do was adding my sentiment. I realised I don’t have a Halloween sentiment set, so instead I used the “Just Because” sentiment from Say It Big and heat embossed that in white to the lower right of my card.

One layer cards are so much fun to make, and using a technique that can avoid masking can really speed things up. Whilst pigment powders like Brusho work perfectly for this you could also do it with regular watercolor paints by doing the same technique of wetting only the background to start with, and carefully dropping the paint into the wet areas. I hope you’ll give this technique a try, and that you’ll share your makes with us!

Love,

Lady Joyful

Challenges:

Aloha Friday Challenge – In The Sky

Creative Confetti – Statement Background

Fun Friday – Birthday Inspired (My birthday is just before Halloween)

HLS Watercolour Challenge – Anything Goes and Optional: Gold

Power & Spark – Birthday Motifs (My birthday is just before Halloween)

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Starry Night

Sweet Stampin’ – Halloween

TCP Tuesday – Holiday

The House That Stamps Built – Up In The Air

The Sisterhood of Crafters – Cute Spooks