Happy Sunday, everyone! I appreciate all the well-wishes while I was under the weather. I kept myself busy looking at all the wonderful creations that everyone made with my color combination from last week’s Paper Players challenge! So many creative hearts out there! I’m feeling a bit better, not 100%, but I did have enough energy to make a card for the Paper Players today, where the lovely Jaydee is our hostess with a clean and simple watercoloring challenge:
I recently got this cute little Ronald McDonald set called Turtle & Co. SU donates $3 to the Ronald McDonald House charity for each one purchased. I am planning an upcoming stamp camp for get-well and sympathy cards and I thought this was a good set to have! So here is my little get-well turtle card:
For some reason, I had the color combo of green & orange in my head when I made this card, so that’s what I went with! He’s got a glittery heart, and a glimmer brad for a little spunk; he’s stamped on watercolor paper with Stazon ink and colored with Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery and Wild Wasabi inks. I am not an “exact science” kind of water colorer….I always say that I color “loosely”! Here’s a closer view:
I don’t worry if I go out of the lines a little, or my shading isn’t blended perfectly. That’s just the style that I like. “Less is more”, IMO! I know a lot of people are intimidated by watercoloring, but I find it one of the most rewarding ways to color my line images! I always make sure of a couple things:
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Use a good non-bleeding ink; I always use black Stazon if I am going to watercolor with ink and an aquapainter.
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Use a good watercolor paper! It really DOES make a difference! Regular cardstock will soak up the water and pill your paper, and you will not be able to blend or push your colors around. There are different weights available, but I usually just use the one from SU. It’s a good weight and easy to use. SU’s Shimmery White paper can also be used but it has just a little different feel from the watercolor paper.
Other than that, the only other recommendation I have is to use an aquapainter. I have spilled too many cups of water on my desk from paintbrushes sticking up, and the aquapainter has a reservoir which allows water to flow to the brush but not spill. I squeeze the handle a few times to get the water flowing and then have a towel handy to blot the excess. I just use a couple drops of reinker ink in the lid of my stamp pad; you can start with just a tiny amount first to get a light color. It is much easier to layer on more color and shading than it is to remove color! It’s also helpful to dry your image with a heat tool before adding shading, or coloring different areas of your image. That way your colors won’t bleed together. But if you don’t have an aquapainter, you can still use a paintbrush & water! Don’t let that stop you!
I hope that you will be encouraged to give watercoloring a CAS creation this week a try! Mosey on over to the Paper Players blog to see what the other designers are sharing…..you’ll be amazed!
Here’s my little ham, eating a strawberry:
