The theme for last week’s challenge was “Just add Water.” So using the Duck with Umbrella die set as a focal point was a natural choice. Isn’t it just adorable?

Die cutting ducklings

I started by laying out the dies on inexpensive watercolor paper and marking out how much space each of them would need. Then I colored the marked areas with Distress Crayons. I used a mix of pearlescent seasonal colors and everyday colors as follows:

• Yellow: Harvest Moon

• Orange: Jack-o-Lantern

• Red: Peppermint Stick

• Black: Black Soot

I added water and scrubbed each area with an inexpensive brush. This is a quick and easy way of creating colored paper for die cutting. Colored cardstock tends to be pretty expensive, with prices some times approaching $2/sheet. 😱 On top of the cost, you have to store it too.

I dried the watercolored paper and die cut the shapes, with an extra layer of the body and feet for added stability. Then I assembled my ducks according to the pictures on the packaging.

Note that you need the die for the umbrella hardware, even if you’re not using the umbrella. That’s because it includes round shapes used in the eye of the bird. I chose to give one duckling a bow on the head and rain boots. The other bird got a rain hat. I made two sets of raincoats in red with black buttons.

Watercolor background

With the ducklings assembled, it was time to create a background. I used an older die that creates a cloud bank on watercolor paper. You can achieve a similar effect with these cloud dies. Then I used Distress Watercolor Pencils to shade the clouds in Hickory Smoke, Tumbled Glass and Speckled Egg. For the scenery I used Peeled Paint and Crushed Olive.

Sentiments

For the sentiments I used a stamp and die set in the same collection as the ducklings. It’s called I’ve Got You Covered and it contains lots of weather-related sentiments. The designer is Vicki Papaioannou.

I stamped the large Thinking of You and the smaller sub sentiment “Rain or Shine, You’re Always on my Mind” in Versamark embossing ink. For the large sentiment, I went with Distress Embossing Glaze in the new color Lumberjack Plaid. As you can see, it goes very well with the red raincoats and accessories. I die cut and doubled up the large sentiment.

For the sub sentiment, I went with clear embossing powder. Then I colored the surrounding cardstock with the same red crayon that I used for the raincoats. The embossing resists the water, so it stays white. I could have heat-embossed it using white embossing powder, but I usually get better results with clear embossing powder. This sentiment I cut out using my guillotine trimmer.

Then all that remained was assembling all the parts on the card. I did use foam tape for the large, die cut sentiment to raise it up over the sub sentiment. Everything else is glued down flat.