Tutorial: "You Are Awesome" Card with Carson Riutta

Hello, my Studio Calico friends! I fell hard for July's kits and add-ons, and I couldn't wait to create a card tutorial using my favorite bits and pieces from the offerings this month. My absolute favorites were the pattern building stamp, the "awesome" die, the scrapbook kit stamp and the pool washi. Although picking favorite supplies was a bit like picking a favorite child - nearly impossible. In my mind, the sign of a good kit is that all the supplies can be combined beautifully and easily. Well, this card is simple and striking and was relatively easy to put together, proof that Pool Party knocked it out of the park!

To begin, I corralled all the supplies you see here. Supplies: Studio Calico Kits - Pool Party Scrapbook Kit; Stamps - Pattern Builder 2; Ink- Color Theory Flamingo Pigment Ink, Distress Stains, Versamark Ink; Dies - Awesome by Jasmine Jones; Paper - Distress Watercolor Card Stock, White 110lb card stock; Other - Iridescent embossing powder, heat gun, paintbrush.

This was my first time using the Tim Holtz watercolor paper, and I'm in love! Bright white, a smooth side and a textured side, already cut to size and doesn't dry stiff or warped, it's just dreamy!

I created the card front by first stamping and embossing the watercolor paper using the "random circle" pattern building stamp. The larger size of this stamp makes this step super quick and easy. I stamped vertically 3 times and then embossed the paper with an iridescent embossing powder for a little added shine.

Next, I set up my desk for a quick watercolor technique. I'm hooked on my watercolors at the moment, but at this point you could also do some blending with your inks to get a very cool background look as well. I chose to work with my distress stains and some water to achieve the tie dye look you see here. I laid down a background wash of the diluted pink stain and then dropped in the yellow stain along with some stronger amounts of the pink all while the paper was still wet, to get that vibrant look I wanted. I love that it looks like a starry sky with a nebula behind. It makes me want to recreate the card with deep blues and purples as well.

Once your watercolor background is dry, it's time to build your sentiment! I loved the look of the pool washi against the warm background colors, so I merely taped a strip of it to some white scrap paper and ran it and the "awesome" die through my die-cut machine. I then stamped the circle from the Scrapbook kit stamp in Flamingo pigment ink onto another white piece of paper and cut that with a 2" circle die. Before layering the two, I cut the "you are" sentiment off a stamp in the Scrapbook set and stamped it in the top part of the stamped circle. I then adhered it all to the card front with some dimensional adhesive.

The final step was simply to punch some small stars out of the leftover washi paper and sprinkle them across the page, gluing them down with my Tombow Mono-multi liquid glue.

There you have it, a fun and vibrant mixed media card that can easily be recreated with different colors and sentiments. I hope you'll give it a go!

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3 comments

  1. terriblygreat says…
    07/19/2016

    Beautiful card!

    1 Reply 0 Replies
  2. CeliseMcL says…
    07/19/2016

    Nice job Carson

    1 Reply 0 Replies
  3. Nicole3 says…
    07/20/2016

    This is so vibrant! I love it! <3

    0 Reply 0 Replies