#spreadjoynotgerms Blog Hop

Hello fellow crafters!  I'm super excited to welcome you to my blog for the #spreadjoynotgerms Blog Hop!!  So many wonderful crafters have come together to spread a little joy.  A huge thanks goes out to Catherine Pooler and  Alexandra at The Hedgehog Hollow for putting this all together.

I am proud to be one of the Design Team members for Polka Dot Orchard participating in the hop.  You can see links to all of the other PDO DT members participating right HERE on the Polka Dot Orchard blog.  Please check out all of the fantastic products available over in the Polka Dot Orchard store HERE.

The stamp set I'm using today is called Anything is Possible and can be purchased HERE.

I stepped outside my usual comfort zone and used both Copic markers and watercolors on my card.  Let's take a look.

Isn't she gorgeous??  I fell in love when I first saw the set.  Let's talk details.

I printed two of the floral corners out onto a square piece of watercolor paper.  I got out my Daniel Smith watercolor palette that hasn't seen much love.  I copied one of the early palettes Sandy Allnock created and shared with us.  My watercolor brush of choice is the Silver Black Velvet 6 round brush.  The colors I used are Green Apatite, Quinacridone Coral, Quinacridone Gold, Carbazole Violet, New Gamboge and Ultramarine Turquoise.  I forgot just how beautiful these colors are!  Once it was dry, I did go back and add a little bit of shading and other details.

Now onto the girl.  I printed her out onto a piece of 80lb Neenah Solar White cardstock.  I did quite a bit of research to find a darker skintone that I liked.  Here is a list of all Copic markers I used on her.

Skin: E34, E23, E25, E27 and V17

Lips: E07 and E04

Eyes: YG95 and W9

Hair: W5, W7, W9, 100 and E27

Dress: Y21, YR21 and YR23

I love that she has a spray of matching flowers in her hair.  I really wanted the colors to match with the background flowers.  Instead of searching through Copic markers to match, I used the same Daniel Smith watercolors.  The secret is to use as little water as possible.  Neenah cardstock isn't made for watercoloring but it can handle some moisture.  I carefully cut her out and went around all of the edges with a black marker to give it a finished look.

The sentiment also comes from the same set.  I printed it out on the same 80lb Neenah cardstock.  I created cut lines around the sentiment with a pencil.  This helped me get a nice, even border around it.  I cut it out by hand.  The white looked too stark so I colored the cardstock with a BV11 Copic marker.  I went around the edges with the BV17 marker.

Let's make a card!  I created a 5 1/2" square card base out of black cardstock.  I cut the watercolor paper down to 5 1/4" square and applied it with a generous amount of sticky tape.  I applied foam tape to the back of the girl and adhered her to the watercolor paper.  For the sentiment, I used liquid glue on the part on top of the girl and foam tape on the part that hung over.  This keeps it nice and level.

For my finishing touches I added white dots on her pupils and Midas Touch Nuvo Aqua Shimmer pen to her lips.  She is all done!

Thank you oh so much for stopping by today.  *Your next stop is at Nicole Watt's blog HERE*

If you get lost along the way you can head to Catherine Pooler's blog HERE or the Hedgehog Hollow blog HERE for all the links, details and complete list of prizes.

Look at this huge list of amazing sponsors for the hop!

Polka Dot Orchard is giving away a $20 gift certificate to the PDO store.  A reminder that you can find the complete list of prizes HERE and HERE.

And if you'd like a chance to win a prize, leave a comment answering this question:  What are your favorite coloring mediums to work with?  You do not have to comment on all of the blog posts but the more you do the more chances you have to win!  Prizes will be randomly drawn from all the blogs and all the comments To be eligible for a prize, leave a comment before the deadline of April 24th.  Winners will be announced April 27th on Catherine and Alexandra's blogs.

I hope you are having a lot of fun hopping along!  Remember that your next stop is Nicole!

~Kristina