Creative Watercolor Media

How many ways to watercolor? Too many! Altenew Academy's Creative Watercolor Media class is all about using what you probably already have if you stamp. I have tried different methods of watercoloring, some with success and some without. In this class you would learn easier methods of using the inks you have. Don't get me wrong, I still like the pan watercolors and I know there are many very expensive sets out there and it can be daunting to just decide what is best for you.

In the past I have watercolored with watercolor pencils, watercolor crayons, pan sets, and dye markers and they all have their advantages; however for this card I used the tried-and-true method of using dye inks. I didn't have the reinkers in the colors I chose to use, so instead I "smooshed" the dye ink pad down on a craft mat or acrylic block and picked up the ink with a paintbrush.

I decided to do a Christmas in July card, so I brought out Altenew's Modern Poinsettia stamp set. I like this set because I have the matching die and also the matching stencils. Stencils, plural, because Altenew does this great thing with the matching stencils, you get a negative and a positive stencil which makes either masking off the stamped image or the background easy.

The "positive" stencil can be set on the bloom making it easy to blend in the background. The "negative" stencil works by masking off the background. On this card I used the positive stencil that masked off the bloom so that I could blend the background in.

The Process that I followed:

I used a piece of Arches watercolor paper and stamped the bloom repeatedly with Versamark ink and embossed the images with white embossing powder.

After "smooshing" Altenew's Crisp dye ink in Velvet, Crimson, and Autumn Blaze onto the work surface I used a waterbrush with clean water and painted one petal at a time and then dropped ink onto the petal and let it bleed out.

For the background I used the matching stencil, placing it over a bloom and brushed Altenew's Honey Drizzle ink outward. The stamens were also painted with Altenew's Honey Drizzle ink and then I splattered Altenew's Fired Brick ink over the piece.

When it was dry I used partial die cutting and the matching die to cut the water-colored piece out and added it to a black 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" cardstock. The sentiment was embossed with gold from Altenew's Holiday Wishes stamp set. I added gold sequins from Altenew.

Thanks for looking and try different ways to watercolor and see which one you like the best.