Artisan Watercolour Technique

Hello, and thanks for visiting today. I promised I would show you some of the water colouring techniques I have been studying at the Regional Gallery.

This gorgeous stamp set Touches of Texture is just so easy to work with.

I used Arches Aquarelle paper for this technique, as it has a real tooth and soaks up the colours so thirstily. I generally use the Stampin' Up watercolour paper, but this technique works best with a really heavy paper.

I have a selection of different papers I use, and the results differ greatly, depending on the result you want to achieve.

To achieve this look I stamped in Memento tuxedo black ink, then took my thick brush and did a water wash over the area outside the stamped image in the places where I wanted a background effect.

I then applied the background colours by drawing a line with my Stampin' Write markers, without touching the stamped image, but staying close to the flower. 

I used a number 4 round brush for this, and came in with a number 2 round brush in the finer areas, dragging the colour out towards the edges of the background. 

When I had achieved the desired result I heat set the ink.

To colour the flowers I used the number 2 round brush dipped in water, then picked up colour from the lid of the ink pad. The stripes were made by simply leaving some areas bare. 

   I did the same technique with the centres and the leaves, and used a white Jellyroll marker to make a stippled ring around the middle of the petals, which gives a real 3D effect, as though the petals are curving outwards.

You can see in this close-up how I kept the background colours outside the stamped image.

The colours I used were Crushed Curry, Tempting Turquoise, Garden Green and Melon Mambo.

I stamped the words I Love You. You Are Fabulous, using the Thoughtful Banners Stamp Set onto Melon Mambo Cardstock.

Here you can see the stippled white ring I made with the white Jellyroll pen. 

I was absolutely thrilled with the result, and am looking forward to using this technique with all my large floral stamps.

I mounted the card onto Tempting Turquoise Cardstock, and used the same watercolour paper for the inside layer of the card.

Mission Accomplished!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Touches of Texture   Wood Mount 141934   Clear Mount 140517

 Thanks so much for shopping with me!  Vicki  x 💝

Carry-over Pansy Punch: Give it some Pizzazz!

I really love using punches as a quick pop-up on a card, and wanted to do something extra special with the Pansy Punch, as it is carrying over into the new catalogue. I stamped using the Flower Shop stamp set onto whisper white, once in crushed curry, and once in melon mambo. Using my blender pen I darkened the inner half of the petals, then punched them out with the pansy punch.
I stamped the "thanks" greeting from Thankful Thoughts using emerald envy towards the bottom of a smaller piece of card stock and cut it out using the stitched framelits.

I arranged this on a plain whisper white card base to decide where I wanted to stamp the images from Touches of Texture.

Once I had my layout planned I stamped the bouquet image twice using emerald envy, then the larger splashes in melon mambo, and the finer splashes in crushed curry. I coloured the bouquet image with my blender pen, but going a little outside the lines to give a soft watercolour look.  

Everything was popped up on dimensionals and I stacked 2 dimensionals together for the pink pansy, after curving the petals with my bone folder. Coordinating bling in each of the 3 colours completed my card. I love how it turned out. It is cheerful and pretty, and gives the pansy punch a whole new lease of life. I also decorated the inside of the card with the emerald envy bouquet branch.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

 Thanks so much for shopping with me!  Vicki  x 💝