Water Lifting on Christmas Cards

This month the Group of Seven Cardmakers all tried water lifting from an ink blended background.  I love the results so made three Christmas cards using the technique.

First up a green ink blended background that was ideal for a holly image:

I started by sponging three colours of Distress inks onto card stock, blending well between each colour.  Then dried it with my heat tool and went over it with anti-static powder.  I stamped the image and heat embossed it in white.

Then came the water lifting of the holly leaves and berries - I painted inside the embossed lines with plain water and a brush, blotting with paper towel as I went along (this lifts the ink inside the image).  The image becomes lighter as the cs dries.  I love the ethereal image you get!

I finished off by trimming it into a square and adding it to a shimmery off-white cs base and added a few opaque white sequins in random spots.

I went on to make two more backgrounds, each in different shades of blue.  I stamped dove images on each and again used the water lifting technique on the doves.  I added the first one to a white card base, stamped the sentiment on a scrap of white cs, and embellished with two opaque white sequins in the bottom right corner to balance with the sentiment in the upper left corner.

My second blue background had a really splotchy section on one side so I trimmed it down to make a mini slimline card, stamped with a different dove stamp (it includes the sentiment), popped it up on fun foam on a dark grey-blue glitter border, and added that to a white card base.

This is a great technique that I'll use again for sure.  Head over to the Group of Seven Cardmakers' blog to see what the others made and for more info and links to videos for the techniques.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Visible Image
Ink - Distress Evergreen Bough, Iced Spruce, and Rustic Wilderness; ColorBox White
Paper - white cs, off-white shimmer cs
Size - 4.25" square
Accessories - white embossing powder, opaque white sequins

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Magenta dove, unknown sentiment
Ink - Distress Broken China, Stormy Sky, and Faded Jeans; ColorBox White
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - white embossing powder, opaque white sequins

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Distress Salty Ocean, Broken China, and Weathered Wood; ColorBox White
Paper - white cs, slate glitter cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - white embossing powder, fun foam