Faux Watercolor Tutorial

I am convinced that the next upcoming thing in cardmaking is tissue paper.  What am I basing this on you ask?  Nothing really except that I love it!  GRIN!  What I love about tissue paper is that it is readily available and cheap and can be used in so many different ways.  I spent the other day playing with tissue paper and have three new cards that each use tissue paper in a different way, AND I still have a few other ideas rattling around in my brain.  For now, I'll share my faux watercolor technique with you.  It is super simple.  Beware though, it and may take you all the way back to making art projects and pinatas in grade school. :)

For the supplies, hear is what you'll need:

White Cardstock

Various colors of tissue paper, your choice (can be crumpled)

A paint brush

A small dish of water

Mod Podge (I am pretty sure you can make your own with elmers and water if you don't have any)

Chosen stamp(s)

Versamark

Embossing power (I used white)

Heat tool

Step 1- tear tissue into small pieces, they can be relative to the size of your white cardstock that you plan to cover.  Wash the white paper with some water using your paintbrush (this is to allow the tissue to start sticking down).  Start sticking tissue down either in a particular pattern or randomly until you have the area covered.   I was going for a sunset type look so I did mine in layers.  You'll note that where the papers overlap you have other colors.  I also have a few white spaces in mine, which I left intentionally.

Step 2- Once you have your tissue as you want it, brush a layer of mod-podge across the top to ensure that the tissue adhere's to the paper.  I also brushed a bit on the back around the edges to get the overlapping edge bits to stick to the back.  Set aside to dry.  *It is important to be sure the tissue covered card stock is dry before moving forward, otherwise your embossing won't turn out right.  If you are impatient like me, you can use your heat gun to dry this.  Once dry I went back and trimmed off any tissue overhang that was sticking out or I didn't like.

Step 3-   Stamp the desired image on the tissue paper with the Versamark, sprinkle with embossing power and heat up.

Step 4: Mount on your card stock as desired and you have your finished card!

A couple things to note, this is going to be bubbly, crumply (is this a word?) and a little stiff when all done.  Also, there will be darker spots and lighter spots where tissue is overlapping.  I think both the texture and the different depth of color add to the watercolor feel.  I mounted mine using dimensionals to set the wrinkliness (again, is this a word?) of the water-colored cardstock apart from my base.  You can also see I stamped some versamark shells on the base and added some distressing to match the tissue part.

Thanking Virginia Lu again for the inspiration for this card.  My recent creation for her Virginia's View Challenge #1 inspired me to play more and dabble more in watercolors and tissue.  I'll be entering this faux watercolor card into her challenge (with her permission- I wanted to make sure faux counted)!  I am also entering this into the City Crafter Challenge Blog #202- rainbows.

I hope you try out this super easy technique, it really does make you feel like a kid again!  For those of you that can't deal with the messiness of watercolor, you can make your pieces more precise and try that.  It really does look like a water color to me, what do you think?

Thanks for stopping and be sure to check back, I have two three more tissue paper things to share with you in the coming weeks!