Stamplorations Love Always Card with Salt Colored background

Hi there! Welcome back to another crafty whim! This time I’m experimenting with a ‘digi’ and watercoloring with salt. Because a printed ‘digi’ (digital image) from my printer often smears, I decided to do the background FIRST and then print on top of it. I really wanted to play with this nifty technique I’d seen on Betsy Veldman’s blog (HERE). She had a cool variation of the salt technique — where you sprinkle salt on your watercolor and let it dry for some interesting patterns. She COLORED her salt and sprinkled it around for some really cool effects! I especially liked her aqua border with flowers, so decided to try something similar. I guestimated where the orchid and lily would fall and tried to get the yellows and pinks more in those areas. Since I wasn’t going to do much until I was sure I could get similar results, I colored up 1/4-1/2 tsp of coarse salt.

The handiest colors I had on hand were distress inks and spray stains. It only took 2 drops of the ink, but about 6 of the spray stain to color up the salt. I didn’t have a purple, so mixed Mermaid Lagoon with Abandoned Coral until I got the color I wanted. By the time I sprinkled my salt down, the paper was dryer than I’d’ve liked, so I gently spritzed a bit of water across the top. Let dry and brushed off the salt:

Sherry Russ at Stamplorations kindly made available these lovely free digis over on their blog (HERE):

You know I rarely use digis, but I decided to give this lovely one a whirl. First, I had to size the digi. Another reminder of why I prefer stamps. Sure you can resize digis easier, but getting them exactly right is a bit of trial and error (for ME, at least!)

Not bad, but I thought it could use a little more. When Betsy was done with the salt, she went back and added some more watercolor. I was afraid to re-wet the surface as these were distress inks and would react with the water, so I chose to use some Copic markers to make the leaves and a few details stand out, then added a bit of sparkle…

In the end, it turned out nifty, but not near as cool as Betsy’s projects. Some day I will have to come back and revisit this, experimenting with different watercolors and inks.

Supplies used:

• Stamplorations framed Love Always digi (Free HERE)
• Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor cardstock
• Yasutomo Metallic Watercolors
• Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink – fossilized amber
• Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain – abandoned coral & mermaid lagoon
• Costco Kirkland Mediterranean Sea Salt
• Copic markers: C3; G24, 82; RV17; V6; YG17, 61; YR2, 4
• Spectrum Noir by Crafter’s Companion Sparkle pen – clear
• Scotch adhesive runner
• Core’dinations Parisian Nights card base

I’m playing along with the following challenges – click on any one of them for more information on how you can join the fun:

• Stamplorations – Hey, Love linky party
• Betsy Veldman’s Watercolor + Salt Technique Linky
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Love Is in the Air
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes
• Stamplorations Never-ending Anything Goes Challenge

Thanks for stopping by and for sharing your comments!

~D.Ann

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