Kindred Stamps: Space Explorer

 

Hello Kindred friends! This is my very first official blog post as a Design Team member for Kindred Stamps, and I thought I would lead with one of my favorite sets from Kindred Stamps: Space Explorers. My family and I are all Sci-Fi and space junkies, so this makes complete sense.

I also enjoy watercoloring, and will use any dye ink I have to do the job. I do have actual watercolors, but the dye inks work just as well for me. I know most people use alcohol markers to color these beautiful images, but I love the watercolor!

So this background is a bit of a modified galaxy background. You get the same feel without as much work. Here is how I made the background panel:

• Tape a 4"x5¼" piece of watercolor paper to a board with blue masking tape or washi tap.
• Sponge on the three colors (Blackberry Bliss, Berry Burst, and Blueberry Bushel).
• Spritz with some Pearlized water (a little bit Pearl colored Perfect Pearls added to water in a spritzer bottle). You can use plain water, but I like the shimmery sheen you get with Pearlized water.
• Air dry, or dry with heat tool if you are impatient. Like me :)
• Spatter some clean water on the panel with a wet paintbrush, let it sit for a few seconds, then dab it up with a clean-ish towel.

The sentiment is white heat embossed over the panel.  And the ship is watercolored with Smokey Slate and Blueberry Bushel. I generally squeeze my ink pads so a puddle of ink is deposited on the lids, then use a watercolor brush and some water to pick up the color. I can make a whole range of hues with the same color this way.

 

 

Because I was having so much fun with this background with this ship, I made two more! This time I used an edger die to cut the watercolor panels with fun edges, and an embossing folder from my stash to add detail to the black cardstock panels. And the sentiments are white heat embossed on Black cardstock as well.

 

 

This will make an awesome birthday or graduation card for someone!

 

 Close up of the positive of the edger die. It has stitching!

Negative of the edger die. No stitching. And I flipped it so the colors are reversed.

 

I hope you all found something in these projects to spark your own creativity!