Donna T Crafting: Altenew Level 2 - Creative Watercolor Media

Today’s course was all about doing Watercolor using unique media. I had tried a couple of these, but found some really great information in these sessions. I have typically not done a lot of watercolor in my projects, but certainly found some great things to try in the future.

I chose the Build-A-Garden: Pristine Peonies Stamp Set for my featured image today. I picked the images with two flowers and stamped it using clear embossing ink on some watercolor paper. I stamped this image 3 times to ensure I had all parts stamped. I then used a clear embossing powder to cover it and then heat embossed this. From my color wheel I picked complimentary colors of red-orange and blue-green.

Next came the fun part – doing the watercolor. I put 2-3 drops of each ink color on my paint palette. Then I picked the biggest flower and sprayed it fully with some water. Then I took my lighter color on my brush and began dropping it around the base areas of the flower. The water then takes that color and starts spreading it, but keeps it in the embossed lines. It was so cool and fun!! I would move a little of the color around in places, but this technique is so fun to do.

I continued with the darker orange for the middle and then the greens for the leaves. I started with the lighter green and then added the darker on top. Last, I did the other flower with aqua. I did let the image dry just a few minutes between each color. Also, if I had water pooling, I used a paper towel to dry up a little. But if I dried it too much, it did not give me the look I wanted and I would have to add more water.

Once I was generally happy with the look, I set it aside to dry. I did have one huge drop in my red-orange flower, but it was dry (from the paper towel) and I decided to cover it a little with my sentiment.

For assembly, I cut an A2 card panel to 4 1/8 x 5 3/8”. I then took my ink pad that matched my lightest color and I ran it around the panel, just enough to cover what would show. This way I have a panel that will match my image (and I had no cardstock that was a good match). I put this on my A2 card base.

I had let my image dry overnight and then I cut it to 3 ¾ x 5”. I stamped a sentiment in the top right and then I made a sentiment strip which I put on foam over the area that bothered me. I did debate whether to use a white cardstock or black cardstock for this strip.

When cutting my sentiment strip, I put a post-it note on it and then put it in my guillotine trimmer. The post-it give me something to hold and keep the strip in place while I cut. I love this tip and had just seen another maker do this on a video this week. I then put my image panel on top of my ink panel.