Water ..... Water .... everywhere

Happy Sunday,

And a Happy Mother's Day to all you mum's in the UK.

I've had a lovely weekend ...... what with my birthday yesterday and Mother's Day today it's been a fabulous two days.  I've been wined and dined (twice!) Lauren cooked a fabulous meal with all my favourites ...... scallops, fillet steak and lobster ..... yum! (a girl could get used to this!!)  And then this morning I had these waiting for me .......

Thank you to everyone for your birthday wishes and all the beautiful cards .... they truly made my day! And thanks to my family for making this weekend so special ...... love you all!! xx

But ..... it's time to get some work done now ..... the gin and tonic will have to wait a little while longer!

It's actually tomorrow (Monday) in the Happy Little Stampers part of the world and that means it's time to launch our Mixed Media Challenge for March.

This month it's all about using WATER on your projects.

You know me .... I love splashing water around, especially with my Distress Inks, they react so well with water and depending on which techniques you use you get some really cool effects.

One thing I like to do is colour my backgrounds with Distress inks and then spritz or flick clean water over the top, let it sit for a while and then mop up the excess water, which also removes some of the ink leaving a fabulous speckled effect behind.  I did a little bit of this on today's inspiration piece for you .......

See how the background has this subtle mottled look to it ..... that's the splashed water.  Water also makes the colours blend together really well too.

I simply cut 4 squares of white card and then used a blue and a green Distress ink direct to the card from the ink pad.  Once I was happy with the depth of colour I then spritzed over the top with clean water, let it sit for a while then mopped up the excess with a paper towel

I also flicked some larger drops of water onto the card to get a more defined splattered look in places.

Once this was dry I stamped the butterflies (HLS Butterfly Birthday) onto each square and embossed them using a clear powder.
Using more clean water, and a paint brush I painted over each of the butterflies and used a paper towel to dab away some of the Distress Ink, leaving behind this pretty bleached look ......

How cool is that!!

I finished off with a few splatters of white acrylic paint here and there ......

And stamped and embossed my sentiment on the bottom ...... Bold Birthday Sentiments for the 'Happy' and Everyday Sentiments for the 'Birthday'

There's more of those pretty butterflies inside the card .....

This time stamped, and coloured using the same blue and green inks as on the front only this time mixing the inks with a little water and painting with them

Now it's over to you.  Pop over to the HLS Blog for full challenge details.  You'll also find lots of fabulous inspiration pieces from the rest of the DT and our lovely Guest Designer this month ..... Autumn (from Sew Paper Paint)
There's also links to some fab video tutorials on using water with various products to get different results ........ pencils, paints, gelatos, pigment powders the list goes on.

As always the challenge is sponsored by the Happy Little Stampers store

I'm really looking forward to seeing all your entries this month ........Happy stamping folks!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.
I'm off now to finish my weekend with a gin & tonic ...... ice and a slice, and an evening in front of the TV catching up with the latest season of The Walking Dead .....

Cheerio until next time ......

xx