Summer Fun

We've been a busy family with lots of summer adventures...

On a warm hot afternoon, my 10-yr old daughter asked for something to do.
"Mom, what's the challenge image this month?"
       (re:  From the Heart Stamps' "Free Stamp of the Month Challenge"

She immediately wanted to make a card and so I printed the different versions of the "Inner Tube Birdbrain" digistamp.  

Note: We missed participating in the June SOTM challenge, so I just headed to Faith's FTHS store and purchased this fun cutie!

After raiding my paper stash, L. set to work coloring with her promarkers and designing 2 cards in a flash..
"Ok mom, it's ready to post"

That was 3 weeks ago...

 I decided to finally sit down and try making one myself this week.
After looking at the FTHS sketch challenge (#114) and the ColorThrowDown Challenge (ctd353), I'd found some additional inspiration.

I know that blue is not technically a "neutral" but I hope this still works for the color challenge. I didn't want the bird to be floating in purple, green, yellow or tan/brown "water" (ewww, yuck).
Also, I really wanted needed to set them as cut-outs on some other background to hide any mishaps with the water coloring.  ;)

I tried to use both the Sketch and the Twist from the FTHS challenge.
 
Yikes! Watercolor was even harder than I  thought.  *see below.

In place of the washi tape, I used twine. My daughter thinks it looks like the lane buoys at the pool (yes, we've spent a LOT of time in swimming lessons lately).

I like the end results, but it was quite the learning experience trying out a new medium for the first time.


*I've had a set of FC Aquarelle pencils for a while but never really tried using them on a specific project.
I knew I should try printing on some watercolor paper. I assumed laser printing would be less disastrous than inkjet... but I should have loaded the paper in to the printer with the smooth side receiving the images. I ended up having to trace over some lines with a pen after I smudged them with the watercolors. My first attempts were also hideous due to too much water. I turned that page over and water-colored the "background" while adding some SmoochSpritz just for fun.
On the next try, I learned to let everything dry between colors and that seemed to lessen the bleed-through effect.

Entering my card in the following Challenges:
July From the Heart Stamps SOTM challenge
FTHS I Heart Sketches challenges#114
Color ThrowDown Challenge #353