Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Watercolor May Flower




Hello, Friends!

Did my title catch your attention?  I finally got to try watercoloring a stamped image for all of you who voted for it during the coloring challenge.  The last time I used watercolors was two years ago when I used dye inks on an acrylic block with a waterbrush.  This is my first time watercoloring for two years and the first time I have every used official watercolor paint!  I also had to celebrate that it is spring, the flowers are blooming, and the sun is out...until tomorrow when it's supposed to rain again.  

For the third week in a row, I am entering Anna Kossakovskaya's Casometry Challenge 3 Radomizer Week 3 which you can see here.  This week the challenge was to use embossing on your card.  It could be any kind of embossing.  I knew this was the perfect time to break out my pigment ink, embossing powder and heat gun to emboss an image (or three as it turned out) and then to try my hand at watercoloring.  

I admit it upfront that I prayed for a flower or another stamp set that this plan would work with when I was choosing my random stamp set.  My prayers were answered with a great big "YES" as the set that Evernote helped me choose was the Hero Arts April 2016 My Monthly Kit.  
Guess what the theme was for that month???

WATERCOLOR

What a relief!  This kit was purposely made to help people learn to watercolor!  I couldn't have picked that better if I had gone to my stamps and picked this one out all by myself.  To stamp my flower and two sets of leaves, I used Hero Arts Unicorn White Pigment Ink.  I've used other white pigment inks and never been very satisfied by them.  This one is fabulous, though, and I'd highly recommend it!  It's super juicy and stamped like a dream!  I heat embossed the images with clear embossing powder on Arches Cold Press Watercolor Paper and was ready to start painting. 

To keep my images as flat as possible, I used blue painter's tape to tape my images down to a cutting board I usually use as my desk when I use my colored pencils.  This helped my paper from warping when I added water to it.  

Next was the scary part.  

Enter the Kuretaki Gansi Tambi 36 Color Watercolor Paint Set

Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi 36 WATERCOLOR set. Gorgeous!

Aren't they beautiful in their perfect little pans?  

I had used my watercolors earlier in the week to make a swatch sheet so I would know what the colors really looked on my watercolor paper and not just in these little pans.  That was fun because I knew I couldn't mess it up.  This, I knew I could mess up!  However, it's only paper and it's only paint, so I figured I couldn't go too far wrong and started painting.

The embossing held my watercolors in the spaces where I wanted it to say- which is a major bonus to using embossing with watercolors.  I used one pan to color my flower.  I tried to add a light pink layer, let that dry some, and then go back and add darker colors where I thought the shadows might be.  You may have noticed that there is no light pink pan in this picture and that is correct.  I had to add a lot of water with a little bit of pink paint to get the light color.  The darker the color I wanted, the less water I used as I tried to add shading to my flower.  

I was braver and used two different pans for my green leaves, one darker and one that was both brighter and lighter in color.  Again, I tried using the darker color for the part of the leaves I knew would be coming from behind my flower and the lighter where the sun shine would hit it.  Then, I let everything dry overnight.

The next day, I fussy cut my flower and leaves.  I'm not a huge fan of fussy cutting, but I think the little raised edges from the embossing made that easier, also.  I designed my card and was ready to go!  I wanted to use pink cardstock that matched my flower, but I didn't want it to be too bright.  I couldn't find my regular vellum, so I used sliver vellum over my pink cardstock.  I really liked how this looked with the flower on top!  I considered stamping the word "love" on top of the vellum but I thought I might as well make the most of the see-through frosted vellum I was using.  Just for a different look, I stamped the word "love" using brown ink on the pink cardstock, then adhered the vellum on top, and then adhered the little brown frame on top of it.  Then, I adhered everything to a matching brown card base.  The color, if you like it, is Stampin' Up's Tip Top Taupe and it is retiring as soon as they run out of it or the end of May, whichever comes first.  I like it as a "not too light, not too dark" brown option that seems to compliment a lot of different colors.  After all of my card base was glued together, I put my flower and leaves on top of the vellum. 


   

Besides Anna's challenge, I am also entering my card in the Paper Players Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #342.  I completed the bottom row of pink, leaf/leaves and flower.  


I am entering my card in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:  The Great Outdoors here.  I am also entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge:  Anything Goes here.  



    

Since this card qualifies for the most challenges EVER, :)  I am also entering my card in the Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge for May 2017 which you can see here.  I'm not quite sure if my card is Clean and Simple enough for the CAS Watercolour Flowers Challenge shown here.  It has open space and is a pretty simple design.  White space doesn't have to be white, which seems silly, but it's true.  Any open space counts as white space so I'm going to enter it in their challenge.  If it doesn't work, I'm sure someone will let me know and I will remove it.  

It was fun to watercolor again today and I'm looking forward to trying it again soon!

Happy Stamping!


I used the following products to make this card:

April 2016 My Monthly Kit by Hero Arts (flower and leaf stamps)
Inspired:  Love Stamp Set by Papertrey Ink
Unicorn White Pigment Ink by Hero Arts
Milk Chocolate Dye Ink Pad by My Favorite Things
Kuretake Gansi Tambi 36 Color Set by Zig (watercolors)
Artist Paintbrushes by Ranger
Cold Pressed Water Color Pad 140 lb by Arches
Tickled Pink Card Stock by My Favorite Things
Tip Top Taupe Cardstock by Stampin' Up
Sliver Vellum by Prima
Stitched Rectangle Scallop Frame Die-namics by My Favorite Things
Clear Fine Detail Embossing Powder by Simon Says Stamp
Blue Painter's Tape by 3M
MISTI by My Sweet Petunia






12 comments:

Unknown said...

Very beautiful coloring! What I like about watercolors - the result always is beautiful even if you had the long break! I have the same kuretake watercolors - they look SOOO lovely!

Cindy O said...

Your watercolored flower is just beautiful! And I love it with your soft pink background and taupe frame. The Hero Arts Unicorn White has been a really nice white ink for me, too. So nice to see your card today!

Anonymous said...

Look at that bold and bright flower - gorgeous! Your coloring always amazes me. So well done! I really like the colors you chose as well - the green leaves just added all the more delicious vibrant color! Then the back ground and mat you used just is so complimentary - just the right touch. Love it! Hope you are doing well. We are in the first day of the big Tulip Festival and Ted is not a happy camper with all the excess noise, people etc. He is camped out all safe and sound on the couch and not wanting to move!

Chris R. from Iowa

Macarena said...

Lovely watercoloring and a soft look of your card. Thank you for playing with Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

Nance Leedy said...

The big, beautiful watercolored flower is gorgeous! You achieved great depth of color and it really pops against your background. Great job with the watercolors...Thank you for joining us at The Paper Players

Teresa Kline said...

wow, this is stunning...I luv the big bloom! I am so glad you played along with us at simon says stamp wednesday challenge!

blog-paperie blooms
ig-2klines

sparkle & shine, kindness *~*

3treescreations@gmail.com said...

Stunning! You would never know you took a 2 year hiatus with watercolours! Thanks for playing along with us at The Paper Players.

Bonnie said...

I wouldn't have a clue that you don't watercolor regularly if I hadn't read it, Angela! Your flower is gorgeous as is your background! It's perfectly CAS IMO! Thanks for sharing it with us at CAS Watercolour!

nancy littrell said...

Your watercoloured flower and leaves turned out Beautifully, Angela. I love your CAS design using colored cs and your pretty die cut frame. Great fussy cutting too. TFS and so pleased you joined us at CAS Watercolour. Hugs...

Loll said...

Hi Angela. So happy you joined us with your beautiful watercoloured card. How fun to pick a random stamp set and try out your watercolour paints. You did an amazing job ... your flower is gorgeous. Love the design with the pink card front, muted by the vellum layer. Thanks so much for sharing with us at CAS Watercolour!

Kelly Szafron said...

Beautiful card! Fantastic water colouring, I love the vibrant flower. Thank you for sharing your card at Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge.

Darnell said...

It's a good thing you entered your stunning watercolor work of art, Angela! Did you see you WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations! What a thrill for you at this difficult time! I hope you are feeling better. Lots of hugs, Darnell

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