Updated Picture Tutorial of Watercolor Wonderland

Since 'Tis the Season is running for three weeks because of Thanksgiving I created another card to go with our sketch.  My other card was pretty clean and simple.  This card is clean but was not quite as simple!  

I've really enjoyed seeing other creative ladies post card after card of beautiful water colored scenes, so I've been trying my hand at it off and on lately.  Since I'm a Stampin' Up! girl I've had to learn to make things work using their inks.  I'm ok with that, but I have a feeling if I ever try water coloring with water color paint or other stamping products it's going to be a lot different! 

Head over to 'Tis the Season HERE to check out all the fun Christmas cards created with this sketch.  If you get a chance we'd love to see what you create!  Plus it's not too long and you'll need to be sending out your Christmas cards...yikes!!

I think this card makes a good masculine Christmas card and I already have someone in mind that I'll be sending it too. :)

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

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Updated Picture Tutorial

I made three samples this time around as I was trying to make this tutorial.  I took picture of two of them and you'll see all three at the end (but not on finished cards).

I started with a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper cut to size and taped the edges of the piece to a folded piece of paper towel.  I use tape to give the picture a  framed look, but don't always use it.  I think it's best to use painter's tape, but I didn't have any on hand so I used masking tape.

I used a sticky note cute to shape on my first sample to start my first hill.  Sorry it's so blurry!  None of the pics turned out of thise! :(  I used my aqua painter and wet the top panel. I wanted it pretty wet so the ink would flow easily.

I started with Pool Party, then added Night of Navy while it was still wet.  You can see that I pulled off the panel at this point while it was still wet.  I don't know why, but if you do that do it carefully if you want to keep your clean line.

This is the second sample I made.  I didn't use a sticky note panel, but instead just wet where I wanted to put my sky.  The shape is similar to my first panel.  

I started with Pool Party and took a picture before I added in more color. :)  This shows you how wet my watercolor paper is!

While the Pool Party was still wet I added Night of Navy.  I dabbed it in and let it spread on its own.  I added more Night of Navy as I needed to make it a little darker.

I waited for both of my samples to dry completely (or I might have used my heat tool to dry it faster!).  Once it's dry put your sticky note back on so you can start stamping your trees. You can see just a little gap between the sky and sticky note.  I did this because just that little extra layer of paper makes it so you can't stamp right on the edge because it bumps up a little.  It makes sense once you try it if you don't know what I mean! ;)  I used the trees from the set Wonderland and inked them with Old Olive and Mossy Meadow classic stampin' pads.  Sometimes when I stamped I used both colors on the stamp at one time and sometimes I just used one or the other color.  Once the stamp was inked I spritzed it a couple of times with water.  I wanted the trees to bleed a little once I stamped them (I wanted them to look like they were watercolored even though they were stamped!).  

I reinked the pad, spritzed it and stamped again until I had the amount of trees I wanted.

This is my second sample.  Even though I didn't have a sticky note when I did the sky I did cut one to fit my shape before I stamped my trees.  Notice I don't have the space like I did on the first one and the tree farthest to the left doesn't go all the way down...it's floating! lol  That's what I was trying to explain earlier about leaving a bit of a gap.

Back to the first sample.  I didn't take pics of the steps on this one, but as you can see I added a lot of color.  I started with Pool Party and added in a touch of Night of Navy.  You can see that I added a bit more Night of Navy under the trees while the paper was still pretty wet because it bled downward. The second sample below shows the steps a little more.  Just keep in mind each picture you paint is going to be unique!

You can block off the bottom (I did in the first sample, just didn't show it).  In the second sample you can see where it's wet because it's shiny, but I didn't block it off.

I started with Pool Party again.  As you can see I applied more color at the bottom of the hill. And of course it doesn't look like I have a pic of when I added in some Night of Navy.  Just add it in wherever you'd like.  For the most part I let it do it's own thing.

Sample number one again...Once your watercolor paper is completely dry it's time to add in some more trees.  It's basically a repeat of everything we've done so far.  Cover up the bottom with a sticky note, ink up your stamp, spritz it with water and stamp it on your card (I have another floating tree down there! lol)  Do this until you have enough trees or you're sick of doing it. ;)

Same sample as above, but I've added a little more blue to the sky.  I really like how my original card has a big difference in the sky.  I wanted to add that same look to the rest of my samples.  They sure did turn out differently!  You can see that I hit the top of most of my trees and they started to bleed when I tried it.  Don't let that bother you...it is supposed to have that watercolored look, plus it makes it unique.  

You can also see that I've wet the bottom of the card so I can add my last little hill.  And of course I've already blended Pool Party and Night of Navy on the paper.

Back to the second sample.  If you remember from earlier you see that I've only added Pool Party on the hill.  Now you can see that I've added in Night of Navy too.  I needed the floating tree to get back on the ground too so I used Night of Navy to help me with that. Right now the whole painting doesn't look very nice, but with the trees added on it will be just fine. :)  You can see I've added a sticky not once again before I added the trees.  I had to cut a little notch in this one because my water bled a little out of my original lines, but I went with it.

I've added my trees and the little tree fits perfectly into the notch. :)  And once again I forgot to take a picture, but I went ahead and wet the bottom part, then added Pool Party and Night of Navy.  

Once your painting is completely dry you can carefully peel of the masking tape...remember carefully! :)

Here are all three samples that I made.  The bottom two are the ones I showed my steps with and the top one is the final one I made.  I love that they're each unique and yet similar. :)  

One little trick I do to make them flat again if they warp is to run them through my big shot using an embossing folder.  Instead of putting it inside like I normally do, I put it under the embossing folder between the two plates.  Works like a charm every time! :)  I hope you enjoyed my picture tutorial!  If you have any questions just let me know and I'll try to answer them if I can. :)

Sara

Supplies used on this card:

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