confessions of a caffeinated crafter: Frenzy of Crafting Weekend! (kind of long post!)

Salutations my fellow crafters,
Hard to believe that the weekend is coming to a close. I was lucky enough to have the weekend off, which as some of you may know, for me it's a rarity. I have been getting caught up on some of the "homework" for my online watercolor class at http://www.onlinecardclasses.com/ and have been having a blast. In this post I'm gonna give up the techniques that I've discovered.
First, these are the backgrounds that I made using my Tombow markers. I didn't have any watercolor mediums, except for pencils and they weren't giving me the desired effects. I haven't used these markers in a dog's age and had forgotten how truly versatile they can be...

I started using ordinary watercolor paper that I found in the depths of my stash. This first one I wet the paper first, applied the markers, then applied more water to blend them a bit.

This next background was created for the class. I won't give details on how to do this, if you want to know, sign up for the class. It's totally worth it!

With this technique I applied the markers directly to the DRY paper, then added water to blend. I didn't soak the paper, cause I wanted to keep the vibrancy of the colors. The next few pics are how I created a card using this background.

First I let the piece dry completely. Next using Brilliance Moonlight White and white embossing powder, I stamped and embossed the flower onto the background.

Next I stamped the saying using the Tombow marker for the border, "huffed" on it so that the heat from my breath would moisten the ink, then after, stamped the saying using Memento ink on the inside. Also I didn't have ribbon the right color, so I took the plain stuff, used the Distress Stain and voila!

Below is the final product!

Below is another type of watercolor background that was outlined in the class. Again, out of respect for the teachers, I won't go into too much detail, but I will say a stencil was used!