A duo of happy and bright cards

Happy Saturday LMT friends!  It's Jaclyn here today hoping to bring you a little bit of sunshine and happy on your Saturday morning.  It's been snowy and COLD where I live in the Midwest, so naturally I've been craving anything and everything to help me stay warm - both physically and even in my crafting!  I've been reaching for bright and tropical colors to cancel out the cold and my two cards I have to share with you today, reflect just that!  Here's a look...

 

I originally started off these cards not intending to use a stitch of washi tape - *GASP*, I know, right?!  I was in the mood to attempt some watercoloring and wasn't even sure the end result would end up on an actual project at all.  After playing with watercolors, stamping, embossed images and even a little stitching here are the pieces I ended up with...

 

 

 

I knew that the rainbow of colors, would find a happy home as the focal point to a couple of cards.  I wanted the watercoloring that I had spent so much time on, to be the focus of the card, so I thought I would simply mount them atop a colorful cardstock base.

 

 

The end result was pretty, yes, but seemed a little too plan and was definitely missing something.  So, what to do?  I reached for my LMT washi stash, of course!

 

For the yellow card, I laid down strips of washi tape to match my rainbow of watercolors, accented with a couple of tone on tone epoxy dots and even added in a bit of messy thread to complete the 'artsy' look.

 

 



I used a bit of foam adhesive to layer and pop my watercolor piece over the background, and I knew my card was complete!

 

 

 

I was determined that the next watercolored piece (shown above) would look just fine on a solid background.  I had stamped and embossed that image in a bold black and even included a couple additional lines of sentiment.  I knew those two factors would give it more substance to stand alone on a card front.

 



 

Again, the results were pretty and the card could have been left alone at this point.  But I had such great success with the washi tape in the last card, I knew this card would benefit from some washi magic, as well!

 

This time, I decided to add some texture with a dry embossed background and a hint of lace tape.

 

 

This was definitely a more subtle transformation than the last card, but worked well since the watercolored piece took up a more substantial area of the card front.  I love the bit of texture the lace tape adds, as well as the focus it draws to the sentiment toward the bottom of the card.

 

 

I hope these cards have brought a little happy to your weekend! Come back and visit us soon, as the new DT girls will be filling up the blog in the coming weeks with all kinds of inspiring projects!