Ways with Watercolours - Techniques

I have been exploring some more with watercolours since my previous posts and thought it would be a nice idea to share the techniques with you that I have learned over the past week. This is a super long post from me!

First, here is the card that I am most pleased with. I completely cased the card and technique from the wonderful Betsy Veldman as seen here. I stamped and embossed my image using white embossing powder onto watercolour paper, I then generously applied distress inks in 5 different colours over the image, deliberately going over the lines. Once you have completed this, spray the whole piece with a mini mister to make the inks bleed prettily like watercolours and leave to dry. So easy, right?

There are many ways that you can achieve watercolour effects, even if you don’t own any! Let’s run through a few;

 Ink Pads. You can turn any dye ink pad into a watercolour medium. Stamp your ink pad on to a craft sheet/acrylic block/glass tile and pick the colour up with a wet paintbrush. I like this method if I want to watercolour a small element quickly. Distress Inks are made for this, however I use all of my dye ink pads for this method and re-inkers are fantastic.

·         Brush Pens. Brush the colour onto the stamp with your pen, spritz the stamp with water and stamp or stamp and spritz the paper with water or use the ink pad method. This is how I first learnt to watercolour stamp when I started crafting a number of years ago. My Marvy le Plume pens are still going strong!

·         Watercolour Pencils. Well, obviously these are great for this, however I also like to use the shavings when I sharpen the pencil to create paint for a ‘wash’ when I am in a pinch and can’t find a specific colour.

·         Chalks. I have quite a few palettes of chalk cubes which I rarely use. For best results, spritz the chalks a few minutes prior to use and then use a wet paintbrush to thoroughly wet the cube then paint. Leave the chalks to dry and they can be used again for their original purpose.

·         Gelatos. These can be used directly on paper and then you would go over it with a wet paintbrush. I like to slice some of the gelato off the stick on to a Pringles lid, add a little water and ‘smush’ the water into the paint to create a thick paste, this can then be watered down. I’ve had great success adding mica powders to these, and the other great thing? Leave it in the lid to dry and simply wet to reuse, you can make your own custom colour palettes by mixing the gelato colours!

·         Spray Inks. Spray on your sheet and use the ink as is or add a little water.

·         Alcohol Inks. Drop some ink on a non stick craft sheet and go in with a wet paintbrush. This is good for very pale washes.

·         Eyeshadow. I like to use old eye shadows by scraping off some of the powder on to a craft sheet and adding water. I have found that most shadows contain mica so they will add a shimmer to your finish. I picked up some vibrant matte purple and green shadows cheaply that create a really bright effect when used in this way.

·         Food Colouring. Obviously this is an old school staple, I loved mixing my own colours to use when I was a kid, although I find that when you do mix them they tend to turn a sludgy colour. Gel food colouring is even better, especially if you want bold colour.

I am sure that there are many more, these are just the ones that I have acquainted myself with.

This one is easy peasy and super quick. White embossed sentiment washed over with different watercolour paints.

I hope this post inspires you to give watercolours a try, you'll be so glad you did!

Thanks for stopping by,
Ang.