sending owl my love {card}

Hi! I have been trying to stretch out of  my comfort zone and try new things. This card is a testament to that, and I am thrilled with how this turned out! 

It's one of those,"Wow, I made this" moments. 

Not being an avid stamper myself, I stare in awe at the work that so many talented stampers/card makers create and I honestly never thought I could do most of what they do, but I sell myself short. I picked up a few mini Distress ink sets this past weekend and sat down yesterday and tried some solid color blending techniques and was surprised with how easy it was. Using a paintbrush, I added some drops of water and then followed with a lighter shade of watercolor splats on each color. In retrospect, I should have added some silver mist to the blue background for a more dramatic effect. 

I used the adorable Love Letter Owl digi stamp, which is this week's digi freebie available for download in the Craftin Desert Divas shop through next Monday.

I wanted to give him a bit of texture and color like a real owl, so I attempted that by first scribbling with several colors of watercolor pencil and then blending with some water. 

I wasn't sure that it was going to turn out well, but it did. I repeated this step a few times filling in the areas that needed more color or "texture". To create the downy feather effect on his belly I simply used the tip of a paintbrush in some grey watercolor paint and dabbed it on. I finished him off by adding some white "feathers". He is my favorite coloring to date. :)

I used the following products from Craftin Desert Divas:

If you pick up this cute freebie (or another digi stamp), and it is love themed, be sure to add it to the January challenge folder in the CDD Facebook gallery for a chance to win a fun prize!