From Pencil to Palette: The Magic of Watercolor Pencils

Stampin’Up! Nature’s Paintings Kit (see video link below), is a great starter kit to have. Today we will enjoy some coloring techniques and see how stamping on regular cardstock with plain Memento ink will work. If you missed my previous videos for this kit, check these links out:

Nature’s Paintings Kit Video: https://youtu.be/6ZY_83kn88A?si=CshXScAE6OTXW9Us

Splash of Paper: Which Watercolor Paper Works Best? Video: https://youtu.be/q_0TCUkz30M?si=J0SIZXGr4xJCNS8n

*** SUPPLIES ***

- SU Nature’s Painting Kit Collection 164982 https://www.stampinup.com/products/nature-s-paintings-kit?demoid=2299332

- SU 100 FLuid Watercolor Paper 149612 https://www.stampinup.com/products/paper-watercolor-fluid-100?demoid=2299332

- SU Basic White Cardstock 159276 https://www.stampinup.com/products/basic-white-8-1-2-x-11-cardstock?demoid=2299332

- SU Storybook Garden Patch Bundle 164667 https://www.stampinup.com/products/storybook-garden-patch-bundle?demoid=2299332

Thicker SU Cardstock:

- SU Basic thick Cardstock 159229 https://www.stampinup.com/products/basic-white-8-1-2-x-11-thick-cardstock?demoid=2299332

- SU White Willow Cardstock 166703 https://www.stampinup.com/products/white-willow-12-x-12-30-5-x-30-5-cm-two-tone-cardstock?demoid=2299332

Splash of Paper: Which Watercolor Paper Works Best?

After so many questions about the watercolor pencils from my video showing you the Stampin’Up! Nature’s Paintings Kit (see video link below), I decided to show you a bit more what you can do with this set. Today we have a closer look at the paper that comes with this set and what alternatives you have using more than just watercolor paper. Next time I will show you more techniques on using the watercolor pencils and how to color with them.

Nature’s Paintings Kit Video: https://youtu.be/6ZY_83kn88A?si=CshXScAE6OTXW9Us

*** SUPPLIES ***

- SU Nature’s Painting Kit Collection 164982

- SU 100 FLuid Watercolor Paper 149612

- SU Basic White Cardstock 159276

Thicker SU Cardstock:

- SU Basic thick Cardstock 159229

- SU White Willow Cardstock 166703

February 2024 Card Project 1 - Valentines Card

Video Link: https://youtu.be/cEjYGhloPIA?si=CFEct8POAiGCkV0z

It is always a good thing when you can create your own embellishments., right? Using your watercolors to make them is even more fun.  I used an older watercolor set I had which is not high grate but it is perfect for this card.

Here are the items used for this card:

X254 Cards & Envelopes Bulk pack …https://claudiahenderson.closetomyheart.com/retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=239

X5974 Raspberry Cardstock (retired but still available) … https://claudiahenderson.closetomyheart.com/retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=10264

Z3239 Sliver Glitter Paper … https://claudiahenderson.closetomyheart.com/retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=9351

Z3132 Watercolor Paints … https://claudiahenderson.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=8637&ci=6273

Z4575 Black LePen … https://claudiahenderson.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=17099&ci=25638

D2215 Remember This Moment Stamp Set … https://claudiahenderson.closetomyheart.com/retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=18520

Z1279 VersaMat … https://claudiahenderson.closetomyheart.com/retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=3385

Z1836 Non-Stick Micro-tip Scissors … https://claudiahenderson.closetomyheart.com/retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=7190

You can find more products from Close To My Heart on my website …https://claudiahenderson.closetomyheart.com/

Watercolor Pencil Technique- Video 3

 

Here is the third video in the service on how to use your watercolor pencils. Have fun and give it a try. They are super easy to work with and best part, you don’t need a lot of supplies.

Watercolor Pencil Technique - Video 2 - Using a Waterbrush

 

Video Link

Here is the second video in the Close To My Heart video series about Watercolor Pencils. If you never worked with these pencils before have a look and give them a try. These pencils are great to us on all your paper projects without having to invest in a big set of tools. This time Close To My Heart is focusing on using these pencils and a waterbrush!  Enjoy and give it a try 

#closetomyheart #watercolorpencils #cardmaking

Watercolor Pencil Techniques - Video 1 - Dry Pencils

 

Watercolor Pencils are so much fun to use and so easy to use to. You just need to know how to get started. Here is a new video series from Close To My Heart showing you a few steps on how to use your watercolor pencils. Have fun watching and give them a try.

Sympathy Card - Sea Grass

For this card you need a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" white cardbase.

I started with a pieces of slate grey cardstock measuring 4" x 5 1/4". I used a stitched dies to cut out the center square. 

I stamped the phrase in black ink in the lower right corner before I adhered the "frame" in the center of my cardbase.

For the inside panel, I cut a piece of white cardstock about 1/4" smaller than my die cutout. Since I didn't use a lot of water for the background, using regular white cardstock is fine. 

 Our Close to My Heart Watercolor Paint (Z3132) has just the right colors for this project. Actually the set includes 36 colors so plenty to choose from to find your perfect match.

Using a wide brush I started with the orange, then the blue and at the end the green color. Make sure to let the paint dry really good otherwise your stamped image will be ruined.

Ones my piece was dry I stamped the sea grass image in black ink on it, well and the cute little dragonflies.

I adhered the watercolor image to the cutout stitched element and place them back in the opening raised by some foam dots.

A few matching blue sequins spread out on the front are all this card needs.

For the inside we used a matching phrase and the same sea grass stamp. This time we stamped the grass in a light green. This adds a settle image to the inside.

If you like ad a little black pen doodling and this card is done.

For more information on this projects or others seen here on the blog, please contact me.

Technique: World of Watercolor Part 3

Here are a few more detailed looks on the cards I made for our watercolor challenge in May. Remember, I simply did some different backgrounds with watercolor paints and watercolor paper.

Like in all the other examples, I started with a pieces of watercolor paper 5"x 4". This time I added water to the whole piece so it was covered nicely. 
I then picked pink, blue and a purple watercolor paint. I used my brush loaded with water and color and simply dropped it here and there on the paper. I cleaned the brush and repeated the process with the next two colors. 
Ones it was dry I was left with this nice splattered watercolor background.

Always remember that the color will dry lighter and you can add more color if you like. If you started with too much color right away you can remove it anymore.

To create this card, I cut a piece of "Indian Corn Blue" cardstock from Close to My Heart at 5 1/4" x 4" and adhered it to the center of my cardbase front. I cut the watercolor background down to about 1/4" smaller than the blue piece. I used a poppy die from Elizabeth Dies to die-cut the white flowers. I stamped my phrase on a piece of white cardstock cut at 3/4" x 4 1/4" to avoid any bleeding of the ink. A couple of sequins and this card was done. Well almost :-) I did use my clear glitter brush over the flowers, but it didn't show on my pictures.

Now let me introduce you to my little accident LOL...yeap, this one wasn't planed this way but as you can see still turned out well. Like I mentioned before, don't throw your creations away.

Originally I wanted to draw squares of color on my watercolor paper, but somehow everything got mixed. So I let the piece dry and I did loved this color combination, but what to do with it?

First I decided to use a pieces of "Sunset" cardstock from CTMH which I ran through my Big Shot using a rectangular stitch die. I cut the outer frame and I also used the inside of the second frame. I left the middle part out.

So the idea was to place the watercolor paper on the rectangular in middle of my card, but somehow it didn't look right. I decided to cut a piece of white cardstock just a little bit smaller than the stitched rectangular. But still something wasn't right...I decided, since my squares didn't turn out the way on my watercolor paper, why not cut the paper in squares? Well, that's what I did. I cut the watercolor paper down to about 1/8" smaller than the white cardstock. I cut 6 squares which I adhered to the white cardstock flush to the sides leaving a grid in the middle. I then placed the white piece in the center of the "sunset" one. 

To assemble the card I placed the outer frame to the cardbase first. Stamped my phrase around the inside of the frame and then placed the middle ensemble with foam dots in the center. A few rhinestones and a ones almost discarded piece turned into a pretty nice birthday card, don't you think?

Last but not least my favorite card...you have to love the giraffe. As you might know by now, in this background I worked with a pre-drawn water rectangle on my watercolor paper again. Nice and wet before I started adding my colors. I went from a light yellow over yellow, orange, red to darker red. All I did was going with my brush from one side to the next trying to stay in my water rectangle. I cleaned brushed in between new colors and let it dry completely. 

Again, to stamp my images and the phrase I had to use StazOn ink otherwise it would have made a mess on the watercolor paper. 

I stamped the giraffe in the right lower corner, just a bit of the colored part. I added the stone stamp to the left and placed my phases so the frame would fit around it. Speaking of frame, do you recognize it? Yeap, it is the cutout from the previous card (no waste ;-) ).

To make these colors really show I placed a piece of black cardstock on my cardbase front. I cut the watercolor piece down so I had a nice even pace all the way around my colors. I adhered the watercolor paper of center leaning to the top left. I placed my frame around the image and cut all overhanging pieces off. I did adhere a few back to the bottom. A little bow is hiding the seam.

I thought I was done, but then I checked my phrase and it said "from all of us", but I only had one giraffe on the front....well, I opened my card and it seemed to be so blank inside, so I decided to add a few "all" to the inside. I stamped the head all the way around turning the stamp back and forth....well, I only wanted a few but somehow I couldn't stop LOL

So, these are the cards from our May blog hop. I hope you enjoyed the little intro into watercolor paints and I also hope you will give it a try. Just go for it and try....the more you practice the better the results will get.

Let me know if you have question. The watercolor pencil post will be on the blog here on Friday, June 23rd....well, I will give you a little Throw-Back-Friday since I already had a long post about those....but I will continue to show you new things I made, so stay tuned......

Watercolor Herb Garden

Here is a card we made in May's card making class and yes, everyone had to use some watercolor paints. I had the watercolor paper cut down to panels of 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" and we stamped them in black StazOn ink. Remember, if you like to use water on these images, you need an ink that is NOT water-based!

We used a wide brush and three different colors of watercolor paint to give each herb a different background. All we had to do is draw a rectangle behind the herbs and let them dry.

A piece of lightly marbled blue design paper from Close to my Heart was cut at 4" x 5 1/4" and adhered in the center of the base front. We added the herb panels with foam dots to the middle of the card and strung a piece of hemp string over them. On one side we tied a bow and used a glue dot to hold it in place. At the other end we place a glue dot on the card and rolled the string from the outside of the glue dot to the inside pressing it hard into the glue dot. All left over strings were cut off.

I hope you like this other version of watercolor use too :-)....keep trying and stay tuned for more to come...

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 .....

Technique: World of Watercolor Part 1

Have you ever tried water-coloring and if so, how did you like it? I often hear from customers and clients: "Hm? I have tried it, but it never turned out right" or "Oh this is not my kind of medium". 
Water-coloring is one of the greatest ways to bring color to your project. All you need are a few items and some practice. So were should you start and what are the best materials to use? 

Watercolor Pencils vs. Paints

I think the easiest way to practice and get your feet wet with water-coloring is to buy yourself a set of watercolor pencils. They are relatively inexpensive and go along way. In case you determine this is not your medium, you can always use them as coloring pencils too ;-)
Close to My Heart has a pretty nice set of watercolor pencils (3505) with a nice variety of colors. There are other companies out on the market that have sets in different sizes too, just browse around and see which colors would be the best pick for you. 

As an alternative, watercolor paints would be a good pick. With these you will be able to create really nice backgrounds and cover big areas on your paper. Those too come in a variety of settings and most companies have a nice beginner set. Close to My Heart offers this watercolor paint set (Z3132) see here on the left, which includes a lot of different colors.
So while paints are great for big areas to color in, pencils will be a bit easier to handle when you try to get a more detailed picture done.



Watercolor Paper vs. Regular Cardstock

This is were the color medium you picked comes into play. Watercolor paper will work with both, the pencils and the paint, but the regular cardstock will be best for working with watercolor pencils. Why?, you might ask and what is the difference?

Watercolor paper is meant to absorb water. While the paper comes in different weights, it is generally rough in texture. If you take a piece of watercolor paper and run your fingers over it, you will feel the little bumps. One side is a little smoother than the other. Which one you pick is up to you. There is no right or wrong site :-) But picking the right weight is crucial. If you pick a watercolor paper that is too thin, it will warp and quickly absorb water and therefore get quickly unstable and hard to work with. On the other hand it is not necessary to buy a really thick paper either. My suggestion is, buy a block of watercolor paper around 140 lb. This is a nice weight to work with. My favorite paper is the CANSON XL watercolor paper. You can find it pretty much everywhere and it is not to expensive either. 

While working with watercolor pencils, you can use plain white cardstock to color in your objects. Again, don't use to thin cardstock or print paper. Make sure it is of a good quality and smooth. Our "Close to My Heart Daisy White" cardstock or "Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White" cardstock are great for this technique.

Paintbrush vs. Waterbrush

Well, this one is easy, there is not best. It is all about your preference. If you use a regular paintbrush, make sure to buy a good quality one. Don't fall for the cheap set. There is nothing worse then when you start coloring and your brush is loosing constantly hair! I bought a set of Michael's brand (Artist Loft) and each brush I tried lost hair everywhere. I had it in the watercolor paints, my colored papers etc. I tossed them all after using them ones.
CTMH has a really good set (Z3188) or Ranger has the same configuration of brushes in a set. Don't be cheap when you buy a brush. 

The water-brushes have the advantage that the tank is filled with water and by simply pressing on the side you squeeze water out. Makes it easy to clean and to activated watercolor paints. The thing I don't like about them, they start leaking after a while which makes it hard to color with. It is also very hard to control the amount of water that comes out, which is important for your technique. 
These brushes come usually in small, medium and large sizes, see here some examples.

Ink for stamped image

This option is only for the watercolor pencil technique relevant. If you are going to use watercolor paints to create  backgrounds, no ink is needed.

Why do you need a special ink to stamp your images before you start with your watercolor pencils? Let's say you bought your new watercolor pencils and you stamped an image, colored it in and leave it this way. Perfect, no worries about the ink here, but then, you are not using the full potential of your watercolor pencils.

Next you stamped your image, you colored them in and you would like to use water to activate and blend your pencil strokes...well now it is very important to have the right ink to stamp our image with. Why you ask?
You have inks that are alcohol base, water based, dye based or a combination of a few (called hybrids). Every time you like to add water to an image, you have to make sure the ink you stamped with is not water based otherwise it will smudge. I usually use StazOn for stamping my images or an archival ink will work too. 
Note: When you stamp a phrase on watercolor paper, always use these inks too otherwise the phrase will be bleeding out in the paper. You still will not archive a very crisp image, especially when you use a delicate stamp because the watercolor paper isn't smooth. So keep this in mind when you try to add your phrase. If you like a crisp image, add an extra piece of cardstock with the phrase on it!


How much water is to much or not enough?

This is tricky and it depends again on the medium you choose and the paper you work on. Let's talk about watercolor paints first:

So you picked a nice piece of watercolor paper. I usually cut the big sheets down to about card size. You also plan on using some watercolor paints with it and lets say you are going to try a few things to create backgrounds.

Here is my first suggestion to start:

Use a nice wide brush, dip it into clean water and really load it up. Take the brush and cover the whole piece of watercolor paper with water. You will notice that the water is absorbed by the paper. Now continue until you see a light shimmer of water on top. Now take your brush and use a little bit of water and go into your paints. Run the brush careful through the paint. The more water you use the light the color will be: less the dark it will be. Take the colored brush and dip it over your paper. The color will flow along, just let it run. Now clean your brush and pick up another color and repeat. You can use as many colors as you like. I would stick at the beginning with 2-3, e.g. blue, pink and violet or yellow, orange and red.
Let the colors flow and mix on the paper, than let it dry completely. If the paper is warped to much, place a big book over night on it or carefully use an iron. You just created your first watercolor background and it might look somewhat like the purple-pink one on the top here or the orange underneath it.

Here is my second suggestion to start:
Dip the brush in water and go directly into the paint. Pick up some paint with a good amount of water and go across the paper left to right. Clean your brush and pick up the next color...continue until the paper is covered. If your colors are not blending enough at the seam, clean your brush, use some clean water and brush over the seam of the two colors again. Continue to do so until you like the result. 

My last suggestion for this background technique:
Dip your brush in clean water and draw a rectangular/ square on your watercolor paper. Continue to do so until your rectangular/ square shows on top of the paper. Now proceed with either suggestion one "dipping color onto" or suggestion two "brushing stripes onto" the rectangular/ square that is drawn with the water. 
It is hard to describe. The purpose of drawing a rectangular/ square on the paper with water first, will confine the color somewhat in this area. You will not end up with a clear rectangle/ square but the color will stay somewhat in this shape. You can see a few examples in the picture.

OK, this was a lot to start with, but don't give up and try it. The more you try and test, the better things will go. Don't throw any of your creations away, there is always use for them. I will give you many more examples on what to do with these " I like part of this piece" creations :-)

The pencils will need another day to be explained, since we will do a few things different with them. Check back next Friday to learn more about watercolors and see more examples of the cards that I made for this our May BlogHop.

I hope you enjoy these little follow ups and you will give it a try. Let me know what you think and please contact me if you have questions. You can email me or simply comment below. I would love to hear from you :-)

Stay tuned.....   

A Year of Card Techniques ~ May Blog Hop ~ World of Watercolors!

Welcome to A Year of Card Techniques Blog Hop where each month we feature a different card technique. We’ve assembled a team of card makers who range from new to advanced, so you’ll see a great variety of cards and ideas. 

For May, we are venturing into the world of watercolor. There are so many watercoloring techniques available to us today; far too many to list here. But actions speak louder than words; so our team has worked with their favorite mediums to bring you lots of examples and loads of inspiration. 

If you would like to check out our past technique hops, you can do that here:
January-Shaving Cream Marbleizing
February-So Sketchy
March-no hop this month
April-Stamp Set Showdown

We have an amazing sponsor this month, Jodie Park of Close to My Heart:

Please take a moment to check out the great products Close to My Heart has to offer. To visit Jodie on Facebook page, just click here.

And the awesome prize this month is:

We really appreciate feedback, so please leave a comment on each of the blogs in the hop today. One winner will be chosen from all comments on the hop as of May 26, 2017. The winner will be announced in our June hop; so be sure to come back next month.

And speaking of winners, the lucky hopper from last month is Golden Goddess Designs; picked by Random Name Picker. Congratulations! Please get in touch with last month’s sponsor, Wilma Payne at wpayne@email.com, to claim your prize.

You should have arrived here from my wonderful friend Sharon. If you're visiting here first, you might want to start at the beginning so you don't miss a thing and increase your chances of winning by commenting on each blog. 

Watercolors are one of my favorite mediums to work with. I know some people have a hard time to us them, but there is really nothing difficult about them. You can find them as pencils, paints, markers etc....

For this months hop I thought I start with a simple palette of watercolors, like the case we offer at Close to My Heard...click here!

It is important to use a good watercolor paper. I like to use the Canson XL Watercolor Paper 140 lb. It is relatively inexpensive and you can find it at most craft stores. The paper has a nice weight and thickness...because if you paper is too thin it will wrinkle really bad.

I started with a bunch of watercolor paper pieces measuring 5" x 4" or a little bigger.

Card 1: For the first card I simply draw a rectangular with clean water on my paper. This helps to saturate it and keeps the color somewhat confined. I used three different blues. A wide brush and a few strokes across the paper in each color and this one is ready to dry.

Card 2: The second card is even easier to make. I used lots of water and some yellow, orange and a little pink watercolor paint and added it on my paper. I did added clear water over the whole piece before I started adding colors. You can do this in strips, dots and fill in the blanks. Just try it :-) Once dry, I cut them in squares and created my own little quilt. This tile technique is perfect if you have some of your pieces were you only like part of it.

Card 3: Here is an example of watercolor background were I added water onto my paper first. Next I dabbed watercolor paint on it and let the color run. While wet, the color looks more intense then when it is dry. Cut to size for your card, mat it and place some die-cut flowers on it and one more card is done.

Card 4: For the next example I used a wide brush lots of water and different hues of yellow and red. I brush each color in one stripe. Some colors flow more than others, but I tried to start and end in one line.

Be careful when you stamp a phrase on your watercolor paper. First off, make sure your paper is absolutely dry. Second, use an ink that dries really quick, since the paper will absorb the ink and therefore your stamped image will be a bit fuzzy, as you can see here with my "so very sorry".

Card 5: Here is another example of a simple striped background. Like in card 1 I painted with clear water a rectangle onto my paper. I then added stripes of three different colors to the wet area. After the color was dry I stamped my giraffe, the stones and phrases in StazOn ink onto the paper. Well and on the inside too...

I hope these little examples will help you get a start on your watercolors. Just try and have some fun. I created more samples than I have shown here, but I will try to get them done for my follow ups. I will have more detailed descriptions on how to make these cards and more pictures in my follow up posts in the next two upcoming Fridays. 

Make sure to check back often and please let me know when you have questions. There are so many more techniques with watercolors but this would be too much to show them all here... but if you are living close by, contact me for a water coloring class or let me know if you would like to see more posts of the different water coloring techniques.

Now you’re off to visit with my talented friend Kim. Hope you had fun and thanks for stopping by. See you next month with another technique! 

Claudia

Always remember:

"Art comes from the heart.

So there is never a right way or a wrong way;

there is only YOUR WAY."

Here’s the full line-up in case you get lost: 

Sharon 

Claudia ... you are here

Kim 

Wilma 

Jearise 

Amanda 

Card A Day Challenge Team 

Lisa Frederick 

Sandy Bell Hentzel 

Jodie Park 

Candy Spiegel 

Debbie Rumrill Bonczek

Anniversary Card - "Still Got It"

Here is another card that I made last year. Two birthdays together in one card ;-) or 130 years together...

I found this hilarious "Art Impressions" stamp set that I thought fitted perfectly. I designed my card base in three parts.

I used a strip of 12" x 5 1/2" and scored it at
4 1/4" and 8 1/2" leaving the last panel a bit shorter than the first two. I folded them so the right panel folds to the left and the left panel closes the card to the right.

For the front I used a few parts of the stamped images as a teaser....LOL...I stamped and colored the pieces before I punched them with an 1" circle punch.

I stamped my "Happy Birthday" phrase as seen and added the circles with foam dots to the front...done!

On the inside I added two white panels about 1/4" smaller than the base. I used both for some personal messaging...well on the right side I added a few more of the circles and my writing was about "....we are getting ready...almost there...at our age getting ready takes a little longer..." and on the left side we left a personal message. 


Now the recipients were ready to open the final part of the card to reveal the true inside...I stamped the image on white cardstock and added the "Still got it!" phrase that came with the set. I backed it with some silver mirri cardstock and adhered it to the middle panel of my base.

Here are some more close up pictures of the image and the coloring I did. I love to use my watercolor pencils for this technique. They give me a lot of control of light and dark and shadow areas without a lot of fuzz. Meaning, I used regular white cardstock with a smooth surface like our Close to My Heart "Daisy White" cardstock (Neenah or similar works too). I stamped the image in StazOn black ink, but if you are very careful with water and the lines, you can use Memento or any black archival ink as well.

I used just a few pencil colors and in some pictures you can see how I have one side of the body a bit darker and getting lighter to the other side, indicating where my light comes from. This way you create a more dimensional image instead of a flat one. I left the middle part of the faces uncolored, again to give it dimension. Ones you ad some water to those colors, they blend nicely together. 

Make sure to use almost no water on your brush. This technique requires only a tiny little bit. This is why you get away with using regular black ink and cardstock!!!!

I usually wet my brush and pinch it between my fingers to get most of the water out. If you never worked with pencils like this, try on a piece of scrap paper to see how the colors react and how fare a little water goes. 

Make sure to clean the brush in between switching colors or if you feel you pick up too much color. I will have classes for water coloring techniques available this year. Please contact me for more information. You can also leave me a comment here if you like to learn more about watercolors, certain techniques or if you have a question about it.

Tip: If you practiced your coloring skills on an image and only part of it turned out to your liking's, think about using parts like I did here with the circles!

Born to be Wild - Scooter Card

Here is a project I had a lot of fun with. This is a Birthday card I made for a very special family member who just got a super scooter for her birthday. Being handicapped isn't easy and when I heard about the present she got, I thought I had to make a fun card for her....and this image just hit it home :-)

So first I had this lovely stamp from Art Impressions. I stamped it on some watercolor paper twice and colored it in with my watercolor pencils. I used the second image to cut out just the scooter with I placed with foam dots on top of the first image...oh and the little basket too. Next I created the step card base and here I decided to do steps on each side. But what can you put on the side panels? Well, the racing lady need some kind of background and street to race on...so again, back to my watercolor pencils. I added the gray street portion and some green for trees and a little blue sky. 

Then I found a set of tree stamps from Close to My Heart.  The great thing about the clear stamps is that they are so flexible. I bend the tree stamp on the bottom to make it look like it tilts to the right and stamped it on my right panel. The tree on the left panel was stamped like normal (straight ;-) )

For the second steps up front I simple made two smaller panel and also colored them in in gray. The sign is floating of the scooter and hanging on with a little string that is tucked under the back of the scooter. The cat looks so scared and guess what? The recipient has cats too....coincident?

I placed a piece of with cardstock on the back for some personal words and a few rhinestones finished of this card.... Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of this card?
I had a lot of fun making this card and I know it went to a very special Birthday Girl that loved it as much as I did :-) Now I wait for a real photo of her racing through the neighborhood!