The theme of this month’s YouTube hop was Out of My Comfort Zone. So I tried alcohol inks.

The scene I was visualizing needed a frame of some sort. After browsing through my Spellbinders bin, I selected a die set called Essential Arches. From this I used the 5th largest arch to cut out a piece of watercolor paper and a piece of Accent Opaque.

To give the scene some context, I used the Kat Scrappiness Scene Builder Stencil and my Distress Watercolor Pencils. I drew with the pencils along the lines, removed the stencil and added more shading.

This is the card I’m creating in today’s video. It has this fun, wobbling effect, created with an action wobbler. I’ll give you tips for helping your mug wobble better in this video. I’m also using Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Pencils to achieve a loose watercolor effect when coloring.

When I got the new Distress Watercolor Pencils, I took them all out of their boxes and rearranged them according to the order on the Ranger web site. In this video I’m swatching the first box, from Spun Sugar to Fired Brick.

For the box, I’m using a Sizzix die set called Seasonal House Gift Box. It creates a super cute mini milk carton.

Become a member of the Sneak Peak Club to get early access to coming releases like this one.

Today’s card is a shaped shaker card, so I’m starting with the card base.

I just got the last two ink pads I was missing from the Distress Oxide palette: Rustic Wilderness and Crackling Campfire. Distress Oxides are easily the ink pads I reach for most of the time. So getting the complete 72-pad collection was really worth it for me.

Silicon Valley in-person shopping

• Unique Boutique is open 10.30 to 2.30 Monday through Friday at the Sunnyvale Senior Center

• De Anza Flea Market: October 7th, next and probably final day.

• Unique Boutique Craft Fair: November 3rd - 4th, Sunnyvale Senior Center

The next day I created the texture with the Pinkfresh Studio’s Stitches Cover Plate. This had the added bonus of flattening the cardstock after its bath.

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To watercolor with the spray stains, I made sure I shook the bottles until there was no mica sludge left at the bottom. Then I unscrewed the spray mechanism and touched the stem where I wanted the color. I used brushes to push the paint where I wanted it. The first layer was very blotchy, so I followed up with a second layer.

If you’re not sure how to place flowers, there are two principles that can guide you. The first one is to place flowers around the focal point of the card. The second one is to place decorations in a diagonal. If you combine the two principles, you cluster decorations around the sentiment and let them trail off into opposite corners.

At this point I really wanted to add dimension to the card. But it was supposed to be a single layer card. So instead of adding dimension, I added texture.