Watercolor Wonder

Watercolors can be my best friend or worst enemy, depending on the day! They are hard to control yet so forgiving. The Artist's Watercolor 101 for Papercrafters class by Emily Midgett at Altnew Academy is a great place to start! She gives so many tips and tricks, introduces all of the techniques and products. This card incoporates several of these techniques: usign embossing to guide your watercoloring, no line watercoloring, and ombre background painting. 

Ombre Background

            

Start by heat embossing the flowers in gold on watercolor paper. Now you're ready for the ombre effect from blue, to green, to yellow. Beginning with the blue, use a wet brush to pull the color down as you swipe the brush back and forth.  Then add some green and pull the color towards the blue so it will mix smoothly.  Finally, add the yellow and pull it towards the green as well as fading out towards the bottom corner.  I did add more blue to intensify the corner, and threw in a more aqua shade of blue as it faded out into the green. Yes, I painted right over my flowers to have a base of color. 

Color Layering

After drying the panel throughly, the flowers are painted with a wet-on-dry technique. Wet watercolor is applied to the dry paper. The paints are transparent, allowing the yellow base to show through the pink shades.  Some of the blooms have yellow on the tips to add a highlight. Notice how I painted one petal and then rotated to the opposite petal. This allows the first petal to dry so wet color does not leak into another wet area.  Finally the leaves were painted with the areas closer to the stem being darkest. This does take patience, allowing each layer to dry before adding another layer of the same color or another color. After painting the large focal point roses in the next step, I added another layer of a more orange shade to the flowers on this panel to distinguish the color from the pink roses. TIP: If your watercolor panel is warped after drying, run it through your diecut machine to flatten it out! 

No Line Watercolor

To give the appearance of no lines, stamp the image with a light gray ink. It is important to use a pigment ink so the ink does not bleed when watercolor is applied. This ink, Altnew Permanent Mist Gray, is very light. Above you see the first two stamped images. I stamped 4 times to get the shade I wanted, but I really could have stopped with 3 for less of a visible line. Using a stamp positioner allows stamping multiple times in the exact same spot. 

 

                                                   Layer 1                                   Layer 2 

Lay down color, rinse your brush, blot some water off, then use the wet brush to draw the color out towards the tip of the petal. Build color by drying between layers. TIP: Keeping the tip of the brush pointed away from you allows you to see your application better.

Mistakes Happen!

Sometimes light lines can make small areas hard to discern. I did accidentally paint an area I should have left lighter. To correct a mistake, use a very wet brush to saturate the color and wipe the color away with the brush. TIP: good quality watercolors can be removed, or at least lightened considerably, rather easily. 

Assembling the Card

When assembling your card, it might help to lay out the pieces and take a photo of several designs. Looking at the photo comparison often helps me decide placement of items, such as this sentiment. The larger rose is elevated with foam tape, but the smaller rose is not. Vellum behind the sentiment makes the words stand out without covering too much visual area of the painted flowers. I also used a gold frame and sequins to tie into the gold sentiment. 

Supplies: 

Altenew China Rose outline stamp, Blooming Thanks stamp, Regal Frame die, Warm & Cozy Sentiments die set, Misty Gray permanent ink, 36 pan watercolor set, round watercolor brushes, 140lb cold pressed watercolor paper

vellum, metallic gold paper (mfg unknown)

Challenge Submissions: 

 

https://neglectedstuff.blogspot.com/

Use at least 1 old product: I've had this China Rose stamp set forever and had not used it! 

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge- Something New

My new item is the Altnew Blooming Thanks Stamp

https://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/