Blue Skies Ahead

Hey everyone!  I'm digging into my stack of new and unloved products today, and having a great time doing so!

I got this water drop cover plate from Papertrey Ink at least a year ago.  I love the design and just haven't had a chance to use it until now.  I don't have many cover plates that take up the full card front as opposed to leaving a bit of a mat behind, but I love the look of it.

I wanted to create the look of rain dripping down a window.  To do this, I cut a piece of watercolor paper slightly larger than the cover plate.  Then, using three shades of blue Dylusions Ink Spray, I painted the paper using a drip technique.  Holding the paper upright at an angle, I wet the paper at the top with my paintbrush using a lot of water so that when I then added the ink spray (again using a paintbrush), it created drips that traveled down the length of the paper.  I worked in stages going down the panel, wetting a bit more of the paper and then adding more color until the panel was complete.

After the panel dried, I decided it was a little bit too soft for my liking - that's because the watercolor paper allowed the drips to kind of melt into each other during the drying process, so I went back and did another layer, but this time without as much water - just some to get the drips going, and then I fussed with it a bit making sure that the colors were balanced across the panel.  This time I used the heat gun to dry the panel so I could preserve some of those hard lines.



Once the panel was dry, I cut it with the cover plate and adhered it to my card base.  I wanted to use some of the rain drop pieces, but didn't want to inlay them.  Instead, I randomly adhered some with foam adhesive, slightly offset from the raindrop openings, but I took care not to use the actual drop that went in that particular opening in order to have some additional contrast.  I also added a bit of white and slate gray splatter to give it some extra texture and to soften and break up the blue a bit.

I wanted the background to be the star, so I didn't want to cover it up too much, but I also needed something that could hold it's own against it.  I settled for this umbrella from Ellen Hutson's Bear Ware set which I colored with Copics.  The sentiment is from an old/retired Kelly Purkey set for Simon Says Stamp.

That's all for me today.  Thanks for stopping by!

*Affiliate Links Below

Scotch Double-Sided Foam Mounting Tape

Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps, Bear Ware by Julie Ebersole

Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies, Bear Ware by Julie Ebersole

Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad, Jet Black

Memento Ink Pad, Tuxedo Black