Watercolored Cardinal

Hey everyone - I'm back with a Merry Monday card - now up to 61 Christmas cards; I'm so excited!! The challenge by Katie this week is to use watercolor on your card. I had stamped a cute cardinal like the inspiration photo on non-watercolor paper. It wasn't turning out like I wanted so I decided to try watercoloring on a linen ATC by Ranger. Here's my card:

I started out stamping the cute lacey border from a clear set (Bubbly Card Borders) by Pink and Main; thanks to my amazing friend Lin for enabling me with this post. I used Distress Inks and then added water to blend the border. Then I stamped the cardinal (from Pink and Main's HollyDays clear set) in black and painted him with a combination of shimmery watercolors and Distress Markers. I softened the stamped edges using a Hickory Smoke Distress marker. I sponged Tumbled Glass Distress ink onto the background and then added random brush strokes of the watercolors. I love the texture of the linen! The Hope (older clear stamp from Hero Arts) is stamped in Pine Needles Distress ink onto a piece of the watercolored background from the scrapped bird panel. I clear embossed it and die cut it with a Sizzix stitched circle. The snowflakes are from Lawn Fawn and I used Enamel Accents for the bird's eye and eyelashes. The paper strip is from the Paper Studio.

Thanks for stopping and be sure to check out all the inspiration at Merry Monday!!