I admitted not too long ago that I don’t really know much about watercoloring. I’m almost embarrassed to admit that considering how popular watercoloring is these days. I decided it was time to learn! I played around with some techniques recently and now I know five different ways to watercolor! I’m hoping to start making technique videos, and if so I will definitely share some of these techniques. Watercoloring is such a neat way to create unique backgrounds and accents for projects, I can tell it’s going to be a staple in my ‘technique toolbox’ for future projects.
Today I’m sharing some watercolor thank you cards that I made for a recent card swap with demonstrators on my team. Are you new to watercoloring? Here are some basics.
It’s best to use watercolor paper when you’re attempting to watercolor. It absorbs the excess water without bubbling up. When the paper dries it might curl, but it’s easy enough to flatten it out.
I made the watercolor portion of these cards by applying ink directly to a clear block. You can do this a number of ways: place the block directly on an ink pad, color the block using Stampin’ Write markers, or swirl color onto the block using ink refills. You will probably want to use a few colors to get the neat color blending effect. For these cards I used Bermuda Bay, Island Indigo and Night of Navy. Always apply the lightest of the colors first, so that you don’t end up with dark ink contaminating your lighter ink pads or markers.
After the ink is on the block, spritz the block with water using a Stampin’ Spritzer. I usually spray it 4-6 times for a larger sized block. Then, with a Stampin’ Pierce mat under your watercolor paper, apply the block directly to the paper and ‘stamp’ it. If your color doesn’t fully soak into the paper and you end up with white spots, you can decide whether you like that look or not. If you want the color covering the paper, just spritz your block a few more times and stamp again. I left the white spots for the card on the left but decided to restamp the one on the right so that the color fully absorbed into the paper.
I can’t wait to try out more color combinations using this technique. The sky is the limit!
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