Let it Glow with Brutus Monroe!

This Brutus Monroe card inspiration is all about how to add a “glow” to your card designs using any watercolor medium. But for maximum effect I would suggest using a very pigmented waterbased medium like the Brutus Monroe Sparkle Aqua Pigments. A little drop of this goes a long long way!

Here is the card I made using the Aqua Sparkle pigments.

First I heat embossed the image from the String of Lights stamp set. When I first saw this stamp set, I just had to buy it. I knew at once what I wanted to do with it. I wanted to give those string of lights a glow!

First, I heat embossed the image using Ultra Fine Alabaster Embossing powder. Then I taped down watercolor paper on all sides on my mat because this technique required lots of water.

I then took a wide brush and brushed some clear water across the panel to moisten the paper. Then I dropped some blue, purple, and red aqua pigments onto my pallette. And with a brush I picked up the yellow color and started dabbing it onto each of the little bulbs. Because the paper was a little wet, the color started to spread, mimicking a glow,

I kept my paper moist by continuing to add clean clear water around the bulbs. I then took all the other colors and with a clean wet brush, picked up the blue and purple pigment and loosely colored the areas around the bulbs – taking care not to “contaminate” the yellow bulbs. I also took very little of the red pigment and splattered a little bit of it onto my panel just to add a little interest. In order to make the background just a little darker, I mixed it a very watered down black watercolor pigment all over the panel and because the paper was still moist, it blended in very well. Please just make sure you use watercolor paper for this technique!

To make the yellow bulbs “glow” brighter, I first cleaned my brush thoroughly with water, then picked up more of the yellow pigment and dabbed it again on each of the bulbs just to intensify the glow and to let it mix a little with the blue to create green gradiation.

Here is a close up of my card so you can see the details of the yellow mixing a little with the blue.

To finish off my panel, I took some white acrylic paint and splattered it all over my card to create the “stars” in the night sky.

I heat embossed the sentiment “Thank You” from the Super Sentimental stamp set on blue cardstock using Brutus Monroe Embossing Ink and the Ultra Fine Alabaster Embossing Powder. I mounted it on a blue cardstock panel and finished it off with some iridescent jewels.

I hope that this mini tutorial inspired you to give it a try. This is also my inspiration over at the ATSM Anything Goes Challenge!

Thank you so much for dropping by!

‘Til next time!

❤️

Anna

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