Growing in Unity Day 2

Hello! I’m glad you stopped by for day 2 of my week as a Growing in Unity Girl (2023). Today’s card is a birthday card for my Son-in-Law.

I dug in my archives for another Itty Bitty that I’ve always loved WIB-911. We live at the beach, so I thought a warm scene was a good choice for him.

I started out by stamping the cute penguin onto some watercolor paper. I used my Versafine Onyx Black ink since I planned on watercoloring. Make sure you let the ink dry completely before you start to watercolor.

I also stamped the penguin onto a full-stick post-it note to create a mask. I “cussy-fussed” the penguin and balloon out separately and attached them over the stamped image on my watercolor paper.

Next, I pulled out my Jane Davenport watercolor palettes (glitz-sea, bright and neutral). I used the blues from all 3 palettes to create a sky background and the tans to create beach sand.

I don’t recommend using post-its if you’re watercoloring, but it works if you’re careful with the amount of water you use in your creation. I wasn’t thinking when I created my card, but luckily I found a way to mask the bleed (for the most part). I pulled out a few Copic markers to color in the balloon, beak and feet as well as the body of the penguin where the watercolor spread under my mask.

I stamped the sentiment from the set onto my card panel, also using my VeraFine Onyx black ink.

I pulled out my Tombow brush pen, black N15, to darken up the balloon strings and lines. In this image, you can see the slight bleed still on my penguin, but it wasn’t enough to bother me into creating the card again. I definitely recommend Gina K masking magic if you plan to watercolor!

As a final “embellishment”, I used my Nuvo drops in Festive Berries to create some dimension using the balloon pattern already in place. And just look at the dimension!!

I hope you will come back tomorrow to see the next card I create using Unity’s great stamps. Please be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win a shop credit with Unity!! I will be choosing 2 winners at the end of my week!