Watercolor Orchid

Welcome to a brand new edition of my card class projects for 2016.

A new year and some new cards, designs and techniques are coming your way. We had a lot of fun to create these wonderful watercolor images of an orchid.

What I really love about this technique is that each card turned out completely different, all depending on how much ink you use and how much water you add to the project.

Lets start by how to archive this wonderful watercolor look without picking any brush or watercolors up! Yes, you heard right, no brushes, no watercolors....

 The card is a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" green cardstock base folded on top. You can use a side fold as well if you like. Further you need a piece of 4" x 5 1/4" Strathmore Watercolor paper. The paper has a smoother finish on one side and a rougher finish on the other side...pick which ever one you like. I went with the rough side.

I used the "Penny Black Brushstroke Orchid" stamp for this card. Since the stamp is pretty big, you want to make sure to adhere it to a big enough blog. 

The image will not fit completely onto your paper, but that's alright. Next I used four different inks which are waterbased. You need waterbased inks otherwise you will not get the watercolor effect. I used our Close to My Heart inks, Fern(Z2650), Olive (retired), Sorbet(Z2164) and Honey(Z2162). The two greens Fern and Olive are used for the leafs and stems. Honey is a yellow and Sorbet a more orange/ pink ink and those were used for the flowers.

I went directly with the Fern ink pad to the stamp and colored the leafs. I applied more Olive ink with a sponge dauber to the leave and all along the stems. For the flowers I chose to cover them first completely in Honey (yellow) ink using a sponge dauber. I then went back and applied the Sorbet color on the outside of each flower pedal. Don't worry about the ink drying on you!

Depending which color combo you choose or how much of each color you apply, the outcome of the flowers will be different. 

Now comes the fun part... I used a spray pen (Z1380) filled with water and spritzed the stamp so the inks started to flow (not to much water, but enough to see the ink shimmer). Now quickly flip the stamp onto the watercolor paper and press it down for 10-15 sec. Quickly lift the stamp up and let the image dry. If you have to much water puddling on the paper, you can use a paper towel to absorb some of the excess.

Once the image is completely dry, stamp your sentiment and add the little sprinkles. I used the Close to My Heart Black Ink for my sprinkles. Apply some of the ink to a block or other smooth surface that can easily be cleaned. Grab a brush, add water to the black ink and load your brush. Carefully tap on the brush to create the sprinkles. Add a few gold sequins and adhere the watercolor piece with lots of foam tape to the card base. 

A piece of Colonial White cardstock is adhered to the inside of the card and this project is finished.

Please leave me a comment if you like this technique and the card or let me know if you have questions. Stay tuned for more to come ....