Watercoloured Backgrounds part 4

7/2/2020

The fun continued at my Watercoloured Backgrounds Class last Saturday! If playing with cling wrap wasn't enough, we moved on to shaving cream!

To do this technique you squirt a pile of shaving cream onto a paper or regular plate, foil pan, etc. You want something a bit larger than your piece of paper, that you can easily pick up to either throw away or rinse off. Spread out the shaving cream with a palette knife or popsicle/craft stick, then put drops of ink refills on the surface. Use your spreading tool and run it through the drops of ink either in swirls, or lines, dragging the ink to make interesting swirls. Be sure not to over-mix and just get a muddy mess.

Then lay cardstock (we used watercolour paper, but glossy paper works very well and regular cardstock will work, too) on top and press gently to get good contact all over. Pull the paper up and put it face down onto a second piece of paper, then pull them apart. I found that I got good results when I rotated one piece 180° and pressed them together again, before pulling apart to let sit while I repeated the process again. I stopped when I had 4 pieces of coloured paper, but I think one could do more if one wanted before it became too muddy or the shaving cream runs out of ink for good results.

Once they've sat for a minute or 2 use the side of your tool and/or a paper towel to wipe off remaining shaving cream. I tried to use a light touch to minimise smearing of the ink, but you can see the "pull" lines where I wasn't successful. I'm just calling them part of the design, LOL.

For these I used Gorgeous Grape, Flirty Flamingo, Granny Apple Green and Pineapple Punch because the colours appealed to me. I haven't decided how to use these pieces yet.

These pieces were made with Garden Green, Mossy Meadow, and Old Olive ink, which wouldn't be my first choice, but I had been given a request by one of my participants to make a card that was appropriate for celebrating a soldier's graduation from the Australian Army's boot camp. Here's what I came up with:

I'd also had a request for a shaker card, so I was able to do 2-for-1! I know the U.S. armed forces don't want anything with even a hint of glitter, so I decided to just use a standard hole punch to make confetti out of cardstock. The sentiment is from So Sentimental and the koala is from my current favourite set, Bonanza Buddies. I have to say I'm really pleased with how the final card turned out because I wasn't thrilled with the background pieces on their own!

The Stitched Rectangles Dies (or any set of nesting dies) are great for making shaker cards. I used the largest die for the outside of the frame, then went 3 sizes smaller for the inside of the frame. I like to get them well-aligned and then use washi or masking tape to hold them together, especially if I'm making more than one (or prepping for a class).

Then I used an intermediate-sized die to cut out my background piece, knowing it would fit perfectly within the frame.

Here's the supplies I used for these pieces: