Take 2 Thursday- Watercolor Birthday Card

Hello friends!

Today starts another new adventure on Our Charmed Life- my friend and fellow card maker Lindsay Amrhein and I are starting a new feature called Take Two Thursday.  The premise is pretty straightforward...  Every other week, Lindsay and I will create and feature cards using the same stamp set.  We thought this would be a great opportunity to showcase the versatility of our stamps,  encourage us to stretch our supplies and make use of the stamps that we have welcomed into our stash.

For our first Take Two Thursday, we selected the Cake and Candles stamp set from Avery Elle and here is my card...

I know watercoloring is all the rage in card making and admittedly, I have been a bit slow on the uptake.  I am somewhat hesitant to invest in technique-y supplies unless I am absolutely certain that I know HOW to use it and WILL use it.  

After some experimentation, I was actually able to create my background with the help of a water brush and some old Stampin' Up reinkers that I held on to for a few years now.  Love finding use for older supplies!! I have another reinker watercolor card that I will be featuring later this week, and Saturday, I am planning to post a DIY tutorial about how I was able to achieve this look.  

After my background dried- very important!! I stamped my sentiment in black ink. 

The name of the set is Cake and Candles, so I added some candles in the form of some paper straws.  I interested a bit of baker's twine into each straw to represent the candle wick.    I tied a bow with some coral grosgrain ribbon and glue the bow to the "candles."

That is all for me today- be sure to visit Lindsay's blog, Note to Self, for her creation with this week's featured set.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Katie