Hello, Crafters.
I’m so thrilled! This is the first time I have been successful with watercolouring! With my previous attempts, and there have been many, I have always failed for the same reason. That is, the water always came out of the aqua painter for too heavily! No matter how many times I wiped it on kitchen roll, the water kept coming. It was like osmosis on speed! When I saw the new Water Painters (151298 page 146-7) in the new Annual Catalogue I had to give them a try! They are fabulous. They come as a set of three, i.e. one fine tip, one medium tip and one large flat brush tip. I decided I wanted to use the animal featured in the Walk in the Woods Stamp Set and I wasn’t sure what colouring medium to use. Can someone tell me what animal this is meant to be, please?
My first attempt was using Stampin’ Blends which I decided was too “hard” for the softness of the sketchy drawing. Next, I tried watercolouring pencils which worked well all the time I used a flattened tip. It looked rather amateurish which is what made me think to use my new Water Painters. It didn’t work because I had stamped on our regular Whisper White Cardstock (CS) which Stampin’ Up has told us is not suitable for watercolouring! I stamped the image on a piece of Shimmery White CS which is better for this technique but is not up to the quality of the Fluid 100 Watercolour Paper (149612 page 153).
I took a sheet of watercolour paper from hubby’s Sketch Pad – I imagine it compares favourably with the Fluid 100 paper. After I stamped the image twice using my Stamparatus and Soft Suede Ink, I filled the fine tip Water Painter about two-thirds full with tap water. I squeezed the barrel of the Water Painter until the water came through to the brush and dried off the excess on to a sheet of kitchen towel. Very carefully, I started on an outside line and pulled it into the animal so the damp brush dragged some paint from the image outline towards, but without going into the white space. I continued my way around the animal starting from outside lines coming into the middle of the animal always going in the direction of the image lines and avoiding the white areas on his face and his tummy.
It worked brilliantly and I was so thrilled! I’d never been able to achieve this effect before. Now I needed to get some colour into the white areas but I wanted it to stay as light as possible. I wiped my Water Painter clean on my kitchen roll sheet and started working on dragging a much lighter brown onto the face and the tummy. Now I needed to decide how I wanted to use this image to create a card! I decided I wanted to have some green grass and blue sky so I could “frame” the image as a “painting”! Because I find it very difficult to squeeze our new Ink Pads to get ink into the lid, I put one drop of ink from the Refill Bottle into the lid. I chose Granny Apple Green for the grass and Seaside Spray for the sky, both of which I did with small sweeping strokes but I avoided going too close to the animal.
o complete my painting, I used the grass stamp from the Nature’s Beauty Stamp Set, and I added some clouds using Smokey Slate ink and a stamp from the Sending Sunshine Stamp Set. After die-cutting the painting using the no.4 square die from the Stitched Shapes Dies, I die-cut the frame using the Layering Squares Dies, nos. 7 and 9 straight cut, using some Cinnamon Cider Colour Velveteen (153557 page 153). Two things I learned about using this product. First I cut a strip from a 12″ x 12″ sheet about 3.5″ wide, lined up the two dies to cut the frame, and ran it through my Big Shot forward, back and forward. The die created a flattened edge about half the width of the actual frame which has given it some great depth. Secondly, where I ran the exposed part of my 3.5″ strip through the machine, that part was also flattened!
Other products used on this card include the corners from the Antiqued Corners & Slides (152471 page 157); Forever Gold Laser-Cut Speciality Paper (I used the white reverse side) (152493 page 152); Flowers For Every Season Designer Series Paper (152486 page 148). I hope you’ve enjoyed sharing my excitement about my first successful foray with watercolouring!
That’s it from me today. I hope you have a great weekend and I look forward to being back with you tomorrow. In the meantime, please take care and stay safe. Happy crafting.
JanB. xx
Cardstock Layer Sizes: A4
Card base 8¼” x 5¾” scored and folded at 4 1/8”
Middle layer: 2 pieces 3 7/8” x 5½”
Top layer: 2 pieces 3¾” x 5 3/8”
Cardstock Layer Sizes: Letter-size
Card base 8½” x 5½” scored and folded at 4¼”
Middle layer: 2 pieces 4” x 5¼”
Top layer: 2 pieces 3 7/8” x 5 1/8”
Products used for this project: please click on any of the links to be taken to my 24/7 online Stampin’ Up! shop. The Hostess Code for JUNE 2020 is EF7U2PC2. Thank you. xx
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Its ahedgehog, very nice one too.
Hi, Ann. We’re now thinking it’s a beaver which would explain why we can see his feet and his legs; and why his “coat” appears to be fur going down his back rather than bristles sticking out! I need to get it confirmed because everybody is saying hedgehog! LOL! xx
Evening Jan. Is the animal a Hedgehog. Dont have them here but that is what I imagine them to look like. Just love your water colouring – you should do it more often. Also love the gilded corner “things” – they certainly put a touch of class to the card. I recently watched a blog from a demonstrator here, Annette Sullivan, and she uses a stamp block – she inks the stamp block and then adds water to the block. I tried it and it works well. Beautiful card, Jan. XX M
Hi, Mal. We think it’s a beaver which would explain why we can see his feet and his legs and why his fur appears to be going down his back rather than sticking out like bristles! I’m hoping someone can confirm this! Now I’ve had my first success with watercolouring, I may move onto other techniques! xx
Hello! I think he’s a hedgehog! I love your cards! Hope you have a wonderful day!
Many thanks, Brenda. We think it’s a beaver which explains why we can see his feet and legs, and why his fur is going down his back rather that sticking out like bristles! xx
You are such an inspiration! Brilliantly done!
Bless you, Cathy. Many thanks. xx
I agree with Mary-Ann, the animal is a “cute” (rather than realistic) hedgehog. Lovely card. I, too, have had trouble with water colouring, so your success has encouraged me to try again.
That’s great to hear, Katherine! I’m convinced the new Water Painters stop the water from coming down as fast as the aqua Painters did. I hope you have success. I need to get confirmation but we think it’s a beaver which explains why we can see his feet and legs and why his fur is going down his back rather than sticking up as in bristles! xx
Nola here from Oregon which is called The Beaver State. That is not any beaver we have here. It appears to be a hedgehog.
Oh well. I suppose I’ll have to resign myself to it being a hedgehog, very cute but not much like the hedgehogs we get in our garden. It’ll have to go down as artist’s licence! LOL! xx
I’m with you, Nola. I’ve seen many beavers, including the pair at the lake a half mile from my home, and this cute little creature doesn’t look like any beavers we have around here. And if it was supposed to be a beaver I think the artist would have made sure that we could see its tail and front teeth, which are, after all, the hallmarks of a beaver. My vote still goes for it being a hedgehog – just drawn to look cute rather than realistic.
Oh, dear! I agree with you about the missing tail! Several crafters have responded that it’s not a beaver. Oh well, whatever it is, it’s amazingly cute. xx
Oh Jan…he is so adorable and you have mastered the water color technique. I too struggle with it and as I have not received my catalogue as yet I will definitely look it up. Praying my issues are my pen and not me…lol. Thanks again for sharing your wonderful creations.
Many thanks, Donna. I have been asked if I’ll make a video demonstrating the new pens which I’m happy to do but I need plenty of practice first! But the pens are definitely better than the previous Aqua Painters! xx