Technique: World of Watercolor Part 2

Hello again, I hope you enjoyed last Fridays excursion into watercolor paint. More detailed information about working with watercolor pencils will follow after we talked in more detail about the May projects we did.

So how do you use watercolor paints?

I started with a piece of 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" watercolor paper. Yes it is as big as your card base, but when you work with the watercolors, you don't always get your creation right in the center of the paper. By cutting it a little bigger I can always cut it down so at the end it is in the center ;-)

Again, the more water you use with your colors, the lighter the color will be and the more the water will run and spread. Less water means more vibrant, darker colors and a little less spreading.

Another trick to keep your colors some what confined with in a certain area ... take (in this case) a wide brush and dip it in clean water. Now draw your desired shape onto the watercolor paper. Add more water if needed and at the end you should have a light water shimmer on the paper. Preparing your paper this way will help you to stay a little better in the shape you like. By saturating your paper this way color will also flow really nice and it will mix with the other colors you might add to it. In case you like a more defined line between each color, simply do this method line by line and let the color dry just a little before adding the next one.

In my first background I didn't prep the watercolor paper. I used a good amount of water and color and drew a wavy line from one side to the other. I let the color soak in just a bit before I repeated the process with the next 5 colors. I tried to start and end my line just like the previous one.

Ones the colors were dry I cut the paper down to about 5 1/4" x 4" and adhered it to the upper left corner of my card base. I die cut two dandelions in black and added them on top of the watercolor stripes.  

When stamping my phrase I forgot my own advice LOL, yes it happens. I did use StazOn ink, since any other ink would be running on the paper. But, even with the StazOn you never get a nice crisp print due to the papers surface.
It is not too bad, but a little fuzzy around the edges. So if you think of adding a phrase, remember it will not be crisp. To avoid this issue, stamp the phrase on cardstock and add it to the card. 

In the second example I used a watercolor paper that was less than 140 lb and therefore warbled a bit more than intended.

 Here I did the pre-soak with clear water. I "painted" a water rectangle in the middle of my watercolor paper which was cut at 5" x 4". 

I picked my first color and with medium amount of water colored the upper third of the water rectangle. Then I picked my second color and painted it in the middle of my thirds and last the bottom third. I let it dry really good. 

I used grey StazOn ink to add the lavender bunch and some black StazOn to stamp the phrase. 

Again, the phrase is not as crisp as it could be due to the watercolor paper. I cut the piece down to 3 3/4" x 4 3/4" and wrapped a silver thread around it. I tied a bow in the middle and adhered it to a piece of black cardstock measuring 4" x 5". The whole piece is then centered and adhered to the card front. A few pearls finishing of this card. 

Again, using watercolor paints doesn't have to be complicated and I think you can create some wonderful backgrounds. 

I do have to mention, when you adhere watercolor paper to cardstock, you need a good strong adhesive. Don't skip on the amount either, because the paper is pretty strong and will lift back up if you don't adhered it good, especially when you use more than 140 lb papers.

Stay tuned for more to come .....