Watercoloring......a mini tutorial

Yesterday was our 10th wedding anniversary and I wanted to make a special card for my Davy. Something that would have our personalities show through. I love the couple stamp image from the Summer by the Sea stamp set. And the word stamp from this set was perfect for an anniversary card.

I love to watercolor and this stamp set lends itself SO well to watercoloring.

I've gotten quite a few emails asking how I watercolor, what stamp pad I use to get a clean and crisp image, etc.

I decided to do a little mini tutorial to walk you through the stages of my watercoloring process. Everyone does their's differently, but at least you'll be able to see how I do mine.

First off, I go back and forth between using the Classic Ink pads and the Watercolor Wonder Crayons for my watercoloring. They each give a little differently of a look. It's not that I like one over the other, it just really depends on the mood I'm in. For this card, I used the Watercolor Wonder Crayons.

I started off with a Creamy Caramel card and swiped it with my Creamy Caramel ink pad. I just ADORE this look.

Then I cut a piece of watercolor paper and stamped the image with my new favorite permanent black ink pad.....the Palette Hybrid Black ink pad. I have found this pad works the BEST for watercoloring. It doesn't bleed and it creates a very vibrant and crisp image. I used to use the Basic Black pad (Stampin' UP) for watercoloring and then the Jet Black Staz-On, but I'm finding that they just aren't as permanent as I like, or they just don't give me that crisp, vibrant image that I'm looking for. The Palette Hybrid pad works the best for me. When using watercolor paper, though, you have some texture on the paper and to get the crisp image, I just make sure to give some hard, even pressure when I stamp the image onto the paper. This pad hasn't failed me yet.

After I stamp the image on the cardstock, I let it sit for a few minutes. This gives the ink time to settle into the paper and dry.

Then I start adding color with my  Watercolor Wonder Crayons. I don't completely color the images. I usually follow the lines of the image, the creases, the shadowed areas, etc. This is where the colors run a little darker when you look at things in real life. I go a little heavier on the ink in these spots, since I'll be using that color to "pull" from when I start the watercoloring process.

For the sunset in the background, I went lightly over the area with the crayons, since I didn't want the sunset to be too bold, but just soft and subtle in the background.

(You can click on ANY of these pictures to bring up a window with a larger view. This will help to see the details even better.)

I use a small watercolor brush so that I can work with the detail easier. Some people swear by the Aqua Painters, and while I like those for some techniques, when it comes to watercoloring, I'm a brush type of girl. I've loved to paint since I was a wee girl and getting a new paintbrush was almost like winning the lottery at that young of an age.   

I wet my brush just a little and start by getting the crayon  marking really wet. When I've gotten the color wet and fluid, then I start to "pull" the color towards the white areas. This helps to leave most of the heavy shading towards the edges and bring in a lighter shade of the color to fill in the white area.

And yes, I really do use little Disney paper cups for watercoloring. Every once in a while, I feel generous and let me kids use some for juice. ;) They're really great for quick watercoloring and they're easily thrown into the recycling bin after I'm done with them. I like that they're small and convenient and there's not a lot of water in them if I do happen to knock one over (though I try really hard not to do that......you'd be surprised how much of a klutz I can be sometimes). And.......the best thing about those little cups is that you never know which one you're going to get when you pull one off of the stack! It's a surprise every time! :)

This picture shows the shirt completed.

It also shows a close up of starting the watercoloring on the jeans. You can see how I get the blue crayon on the jeans started and blended before I start pulling the color towards the white area. By doing this, it takes away the harsh crayon line.

I always keep a paper towel handy when I'm watercoloring....not just because I'm a klutz and I might spill the water, but also just in case I get a little more water on the watercolor paper than I really wanted. I use a corner of the paper towel and VERY lightly touch it to the extra water and it soaks it up without worrying about bleeding the color into another area or having a splotchy look on the paper.

Here's a close up of the finished jeans.

I repeated these steps for each area I needed to watercolor, except for the sky.

For the sky, I started at the top of the paper with a REALLY wet brush and blended the crayon with the water in an ovular motion. As I did this, I worked my way down the cardstock, blending the colors together. This process gave the sunset a cohesiveness....it looks like each color bleeds right into each other. There's no line break in the colors.

After the watercolor paper was dry, I mounted it on a piece of Apricot Appeal cardstock, which I lightly swiped around the edges with Creamy Caramel. This got mounted on top of a piece of Pretty in Pink cardstock, which I also lightly swiped with the Creamy Caramel ink pad.

I mounted this on top of the Creamy Caramel card front.

I used my Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker to ink the first two lines of the greeting and stamped that in the upper left corner of the watercolor paper. I cleaned off the stamp REALLY well and then inked up the third line of the greeting stamp and stamped it on a scrap of Pretty in Pink cardstock. I then trimmed down the Pretty in Pink cardstock (which I swiped with Creamy Caramel cardstock) so that it would fit under the small metal frame from the Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware. I adhered this to the card in the bottom right corner.

Before I put the Antique Brass brads (also from the Hodgepodge Hardware kit) in the holes on frames, I cut a piece of ribbon from one of the 5 spools that comes in the Uptown Khaki ribbon from American Crafts and tied it with a knot and trimmed the edges. I then used the paper piercer and mat to pierce holes through the Creamy Caramel cardstock and pushed the brads through.

And yes, my Davy loved the card. :)

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Comments

[Debbie M]

Thanks for the great tutorial. I'm always nervous about watercoloring because mine comes out so watery!! No pun intended. I now see that perhaps I would do better with a brush until I get the hang of it and then can try the aqua painter.

Happy Anniversary to you and your Davy!!! My Dave & I will celebrate 24 years on the 24th of June.

Debbie

[Gina K]

Absolutely gorgeous! Hope you had a great anniversary!

[Jennifer Headlee]

Thank you so much for this information! I have dabbled a little in watercoloring and just do not like the results. I will definitely be trying your technique of placing the color around the outer edges and working my way in. I check out your blog on occasion and really enjoy your work. Thanks so much for sharing it with the world!

Jennifer

[jean]

Thanks for the tutorial! I need to be brave and try it someday!
Jean

[Becky Elfert]

Great tutorial! Thank you so much. Your work is absolutely stunning. Happy Anniversary, may you have many, many more years of happiness.

[Sarah Darrigan]

Happy Anniversary! What a great tutorial, I now really have to go and try it.

[Mary C. Anderson]

I put my watercolor crayons away becuase I was not getting the look that I thoughtI should. Now I see why. I was doing it wrong. :) Thank you, Erika for this wonderful tutorial.As always your tutorials are very easy to follow. My 10th anniversay is this October and I would love to use this very same stamp to make Wayne's card. Thanks to your tutorial and your inspiration I just may use it.

Mary

[Lotta Borg]

Thank you for a very nice tutorial. Now I think that even I can trie to use my watercolor pencils.
And what a beautiful card you made - I´m impressed.

Lotta

[Lisa C.]

this tutorial is fantastic, I am so thrilled you posted this, I needed this to show me *how* to use my crayons. Thanks!

[christie]

This is a beautiful card! Thanks for the tutorial. I never even thought to watercolor this way. I love how easy you make it look. I'm going to have to try this!

[Mary Davidson]

Thank you so much, Erika, for this fabulous tutorial! I've used my WCC with the aquapainter, but like someone mentioned...too wet. I'm going to try this with a smaller WC brush. I love your work.