Water Colour Technique Tips - Hand Penned Stamps

 I'm back with some more water-colouring for you today. It seems I just can't get enough of it and I find colouring the Stampin' Up!® stamps a quick and relatively easy way to indulge my passion.

The Hand Penned Suite is a comprehensive suite grouping coordinated products that lend themselves to a variety of uses. Cards, scrap pages, ornaments, embellishments etc. 

I've used the stamps and dies for my cards today.

  Images copyright Stampin' Up!® 1990 -2022 

You can see how the outlined images would lend themselves to painting.

  Images copyright Stampin' Up!® 1990 -2022

Here are my tips for watercolour.

1. Always leave white spaces. 

This is probably the most difficult thing to do when you are starting out as we've been taught from early on to "colour in" the shapes.

2. Learn the different results by using wet on wet or wet on dry layers of colour.

Practice both techniques on scrap before you start your main project.

3. Work quickly and freely.

I have a video on my Youtube Channel if you would like to see these techniques demonstrated and explained more fully.

I used the 2020 - 2022 In Color classic inks for this project and backed the design with one of the patterns in the 2020 - 2022 In Color 6" x 6" Designer Series Paper Assortments. Item #155230.

  Images copyright Stampin' Up!® 1990 -2022

Do you notice the cute little bee at the top of the greeting? That is one of the Bumblebee Trinkets.
I also tried this with the 2021 - 2023 In Colors using Fresh Freesia and Evening Evergreen as the base colours.

  Images copyright Stampin' Up!® 1990 -2022

You can add more interest to your cards by using dimensionals to raise some elements higher than others. You can also add ribbon, contrasting coloured mats, and of course you can change the layout of your card.

 

Thank you for looking and I hope you will give watercolouring a try. It is best done on watercolour paper. Stampin' Up!® has the Fluid 100 w/c paper, that you can order through my store.

If you wish to purchase any of the products I've used, I'd love you to go to my store where you will find everything you need.

Best Wishes

Stampin Up Hawaii Achievers Swap

Hello or should I say Aloha! 

We'll be leaving in a little over an hour, so I just have time to do a quick post on my swaps before I leave. I'm going to schedule the post so it doesn't spoil the surprise for the recipients, But I'm going to be flat out catching up on classes when I get home, so now is a perfect time. 

A sneak peek of the finished card fronts. I love how my colours turned out - they are so bright and summery.

Lots of techniques were needed to achieve the finished card front. I started by using a brayer on A4 size sheets of Whisper White. I love playing with colour and I used combinations of Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango and Daffodil Delight. The other colours came about by overlapping colours.

I stamped the swirls in Cherry Cobbler and the leaf and flower image with Memento Black as I just wanted a hint of the images, then I used Pacific Point for the zig zag stamp. I had to leave all this to dry over night then the embossed Gorgeous Grunge stamps in both Gold and White.

The butterflies are also stamped in Memento then water coloured  with an Aqua Painter and classic inks. This is such a quick technique and I think gives a really gorgeous effect.

Finally here is a selection of the finished card fronts. I'm really hoping the recipients like them.

You can probably see the variations brought about by using the brayer in a random and "modern" way without trying to blend the colours perfectly. I really like the feeling of light that shines through on a lot of these, and put that down to the inclusion of Daffodil Delight ink. 

These are very colourful and remind me of the tropics (and the 80's) 

You can find a list of the items used below and if you'd like further information please feel free to contact me via my Demonstrator Business Web Site

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Best of Sale-a-Bration Stamp Set

Have you seen the Best of 25 Years series of Stamp Sets from Stampin' Up!? It's a wonderful idea to commemorate 25 years in business and I predict these stamp sets will become collectors pieces.

One of the things I love is that the images are different in size to the original images and there is one new stamp in each set. 

To celebrate Sale-a-Bration, I brought out my "Best of Sale-a-Bration" set and used my favourite image as a basis for colouring. I thought this image would be wonderful on note cards, so stamped quite a few of them using Early Espresso Ink. My choice and combinations of colours create a variety of pretty flowers that will work on many cards

Most of these stamped images have not yet been made into cards, but will be very shortly. I used a water colour technique with classic ink and an Aqua Painter. The water blends the stamped ink a little too and allows for layering of colours. Just remember to always start with your lightest colour!

Coastal Cabana mat picks up the colours in the petals.

Pink Pirouette and Early Espresso are a lovely combination and I knew the exact person I wanted to send this to today, so I added an embossed background using my Free Sale-a-Bration embossing folder "Decorative Dots", added a tiny linen thread bow and popped it in the post. 

You can view the choice of free products available during Sale-A-Bration in this brochure so have a look and drop me a line if you'd like a hard copy. 

Sale-A-Bration continues until March 31, so don't miss out on your free products.

You can choose one free product for each $90 that you spend.

Until Next Time,

Stay Crafty!

Wonderful Watercolour

This week's technique class was experimenting with Stampin' Up! images and a variety of watercolour techniques. I could have played all day it was so much fun and every time I stamped I thought of different ways of colouring. Why do we have to eat, do chores and sleep? 

Here are a couple of the cards made today. I like to teach people to try working "outside the box" but as this is often confronting, I start with the more traditional methods of colouring. 

 The simplicity of this image is so appealing and it lends itself to many colourful interpretations. I used my Aqua Painter and Stampin' Write Markers to colour this one.  Stazon Jet Black is stamped onto Water Colour Paper then matted with Basic Black card onto a Naturals White card base.

The detail shows the lovely texture on the water colour paper and the excellent depth of colour you can achieve with Stampin Write Markers and the Aqua Painter.

This next card takes the experimenting to the next level. Stamping, spritzing, overstamping and sponging all play a part. I love the background and the soft effect of spritzing after the image is stamped. Again I used Stazon Jet Black ink for the main imaged the coloured it with an Aqua Painter and ink from Stampin' Up! ink pads. When dry I added white highlights with a White Gel Pen. 

The stamps are from the Happy Watercolour set in the new Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalogue. Item # 133191 (clear mount) It is also available in wood. 

The gorgeous greeting is from the "Another Great Year" set from Stampin' Up! Item # 133034 (wood) and it too is available in clear mount. 

Take a look at the beautiful stamp sets in the new catalogue and contact me for further assistance. 

I have another series of watercolours but I'll leave them for the next post.

Until then

Stay Crafty!