I've had both assortments of watercolour pencils for years now and I rarely use them. I think it's because I've had low expectations of what my colouring will end up looking like when I do. I've never admired the sketchy look they seem to create. But looking at the beautiful open blooms of the Happiness Abounds stamp set that is part of the Hues of Happiness Suite, I thought it would be a good opportunity to explore that medium a bit more and see if I could get some results I would be "Happier" with.
I used it for a Mother's Day card for my Design Team sample for As You See It Challenge #274 which is a Fill in the Blank Challenge:
I would fill in the blank with: The best thing about mothers is Unconditional Love!
Here's a closer look at my card using watercolour pencils:
- I used So Saffron cardstock as my card base and on that I layered a piece of the Hues of Happiness Designer Series Paper.
- Using the Blossoming Happiness Dies (part of the Happiness Abounds bundle) I die cut the perforated edge of a piece of Basic White cardstock and ripped the other edge. The sentiment from the Happiness Abounds set was stamped on the bottom edge using Memento ink.
- On a piece of Shimmery White cardstock I stamped various roses and the single flower and 6 sprigs of foliage (3 of each design) in Memento Ink. Since I would be using water to blend the watercolour pencil, I had to be careful of the Memento ink bleeding, but since this stamp set is a photopolymer one, I didn't want to use the waterproof StazOn ink because I wouldn't be able to clean it off with StazOn Cleaner, since it can damage photopolymer stamps.
- I added the colour I wanted in a few scribbles to each of the flowers, then used a water painter to blend the colour throughout the image. I was as careful as I could to avoid the lines so I could avoid bleeding the ink.
- I let the images dry for a few hours. Then I added more water colour pencil to the areas that would be shadowed. This time I coloured in darkly and radiated from the core outwards. I blended again with a water painter and was really pleased with the results. This second step made all the difference!
- I arranged the flowers on the piece of Basic White as shown and adhered them with a mixture of glue dots and Stampin' Dimensionals to create vertical dimension, tucking in the leaves and some vellum sprigs here and there.
- The vellum sprigs were die cut using the Ranunculus Dies and the Layering Designs vellum sheets.
- The second sentiment is from the Flowering Tulips stamp set and is stamped in Melon Mambo. I fussy cut around it so you could still see the flowers underneath and mounted it with a combination of a glue dot and a dimensional.
- Finally I added some Glossy Dots in Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and Pool Party.
I hope you'll give the watercolour pencils another try!
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So, so gorgeous, Heather - I love the color saturation you got with the pencils! A glorious design, too - what mother wouldn't love to receive this??
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderful and you did a great job with your colored pencils. I should get mine out and play with them again after being hidden for so long! I just LOVE how you did the white piece with the torn edge on one side and the notebook notches to the left! A beautiful mother's day card to give anyone!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carol! Those notebook notches are from a die in the Blossoming Happiness dies!
ReplyDelete