Distress Watercoloring with Simon Says Stamp!

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!

Hi friends! I am back with some soft holiday inspiration using one of my new illustrations for the Simon Says Stamp All the Joy release: Joyful Anemones. This illustration is one that I have been super excited about, and just don’t have enough hours in the day to do all of the things I want to do with it! For my first project with it, I created some intense red anemones with alcohol markers (check it out HERE), but for this project, I decided to go to the other end of the spectrum with some soft watercoloring using Distress Inks. Let’s get started with the details!

To start, I stamped my Joyful Anemones background onto a panel of Fabriano Artistico Hot Press watercolor paper using embossing ink and heat embossed it with White Satin Pearl embossing powder. I love using this softly pearlescent embossing powder for busy floral backgrounds; it gives almost a faux-no-line colored look. I taped the embossed panel down to my watercolor board, then used Distress Inks cubes in shades of Speckled Egg, Blueprint Sketch, Bundled Sage, Milled Lavender, Pumice Stone to watercolor my images.

I wanted to create some lovely, soft white anemones with subtle green foliage and some pops of blue for the berries, so I watercolored the background around the flowers with Speckled Egg. I tap my cubes onto a palette or plate, then pick up the color with my damp paintbrush. The Distress Inks react beautifully with the water and move spectacularly on the watercolor paper, making them such a fun (and easy!) medium to use! Watercoloring the background first allowed me to keep the white anemones nice and light, without adding too many shadows and making them look dingy. I used Milled Lavender and Pumice Stone to add some subtle shadows to my flowers.

Once I had finished my watercoloring, I trimmed down some Altenew Dazzling Diamond cardstock to flank the edges and create some sparkle on either end of my watercolored panel. I also die cut a Monoline Merry Christmas die from the same glittery cardstock, backing the detail layer with a vellum bubble layer. To accent the sentiment, I die cut the Branching Corner Holly from some minty cardstock that coordinated nicely with the Speckled Egg background, adding some sparkling accents from some more Dazzling Diamond cardstock. I popped up the greeting and foliage die cuts with foam adhesive, then added a few Trinity Milk Glass gems for one last touch of sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today. This Joyful Anemones stamp set is on a fabulous sale right now, so don’t miss out on getting this pretty background stamp for a great price. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!