My Stifled City Girl

I went to college in New York. Upstate, but we'd sneak down to Manhattan every now and then when we'd deprived ourselves of Ben & Jerry's for a week or two and saved up the $19 it took to get one of those crazy People's Express flights.

I know big cities aren't for everyone. Most of the time, they're not even for me. But every now and then I do miss Gotham. One of the greatest things about New York is that it is possible to be by yourself for days on end in huge crowds of people. It's sort of like the internet that way - you get all of the excitement and weirdness of this big sea of humanity, but without ever having to talk to anyone.

And the water in New York is acceptable too for this water-averse human. It seems sort of civilized and tamed down there at the lower end. I love that feeling you get when your view opens up to the Statue of Liberty and you feel like you've walked to the edge of the earth. SO MUCH STUFF and then nothing.

So when I FINALLY got to bust out Calling all Heroes, I knew what MUST be done. Is this not the cutest??

The first card I made with this set was super graphic and cute (can't show you until convention) in the style of the set, but the card I made with my heart was a little different. :)

I outright stole this technique from my sister. We were in an India Ink painting class this month and she was making all these cool landscapes by folding up the bottom of her paper onto her wet painting to get a reflection. She got some amazing results and I know I had to try it with this beautiful little cityscape.

First, I scored the watercolor paper. Oh - and I could not get this to work with cold press watercolor paper. No matter how much water, ink etc. I tried, it wouldn't transfer. So I ended up using hot press Fabriano. I even tried it with regular cardstock and no dice.

Next, I masked off above the fold with Post-It masking tape. Then I inked up my stamp in Tempting Turquoise. Using a sponge dauber, I dabbed Blackberry Bliss all over the stamp randomly. Then I sprayed the bottom half of the paper with water, stamped the image on top and folded the stamped image down into the water and burnished it. When I opened the card, this is what I saw.

 

 

Well almost - I went back in with an aquapainter and added some Daffodil Delight. 

Cool, eh? Easier than some other reflection techniques too.

If you want to get this set, you better hurry - it's a while supplies last set.

 

Hope all you city people like it as much as I do. :)

Loveyameanitbye.