Easy Watercolor Techniques with Simple Supplies

Hello everyone, thanks for stopping by today! Sometimes it’s nice to create some cards that use very few supplies that most of us have on hand. In today’s card I am sharing three easy watercoloring techniques that require only watercolors, watercolor paper and brushes.

Another thing I want to point out is that you do not need to have the most expensive supplies on hand to make beautiful cards. For the watercoloring techniques I am sharing today, I purposely used an inexpensive 12  watercolor paint set from Royal & Langnickle that cost about $5-8 dollars. This set can be found at local craft stores, office supply stores and even box stores such as Wal-Mart.

I’ve also chosen to work with some Canson XL watercolor paper; this is an inexpensive, student-grade watercolor paper that can also be found very easily. The purpose of me using these inexpensive products is to demonstrate that you can achieve beautiful results without feeling like you have to buy the more expensive products on the market.

In my video below I will walk you through how I created the watercolor backgrounds you see on my cards using three different techniques. If you enjoy the video, be sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel!

Because I am sharing multiple techniques in the video, I am not showing how I put the final cards together. Instead, I will tell you a bit about each one here in this post. All of the cards are simple to make too, which makes it fun for mass-producing!

The painted hearts panel I used as a full sized panel for the front of my card. I started off by die cutting it with a Stitched Rectangle die from Simon Says Stamp and heat embossing a sentiment using the Neat & Tangled Faceted stamp set.

The glittery bow is die cut from the Pretty Pink Posh Twine and Bows die set; I love how you can customize the size of the bow with this die by choosing from one of the three bows included in the set. I also scattered a few Ballerina Pink, Sugar Plum and Sparkling Clear sequins (from Pretty Pink Posh as well) around to add some more shimmer and shine.

The hearts are so interesting and fun that I felt they needed to take center stage on this card; however, another fun idea for these hearts would be to cut them out with some scissors and use them as little embellishments on multiple cards. The ideas are limitless! :)

For the flower panel, I decorated the background a bit with some blue, green and yellow watercolors. I also took some Tim Holtz distress ink (Cracked Pistachio and Scattered Straw) and added a tile pattern using a stencil from Hero Arts. I misted the ink with a bit of water to make the ink look a bit more like watercolor. You could skip decorating the background of the panel however if you prefer.

To decorate this card, I die cut a “happy” sentiment from a Winnie and Walter die set and heat embossed the “let’s celebrate” using an Altenew stamp set. The background panel and the layers underneath are all die cut with the My Favorite Things Cross-Stitched Stax die set.

For some finishing embellishments I added some Wink of Stella clear glitter over the flowers and leaves, as well as some Glossy Accents and Pretty Pink Posh clear droplets. I just love how the droplets resemble water; they really add a classy touch to floral themed cards.

Finally, with the background wash we created at the beginning of the video tutorial, I made a bunch of simple die cut hearts to layer together. This creates a fun focal point for a card and really lets the texture and color of each flower stand out nicely.

I created the background for the hearts using the My Favorite Things Painted Stripes background stamp and die cut it using a Simon Says Stamp’s Stitched Rectangle. The sentiment is also from Simon Says Stamp’s Soaring for You stamp set, and is heat embossed onto black cardstock.

Because I wanted to keep this card simple, I just added a few Pretty Pink Posh Sugar Plum and Sparkling Clear sequins to finish everything off.

So I hope this has given you some inspiration and ideas for creating with inexpensive watercolors! You can make so many fun and creative cards, using the supplies you already have on hand!

I’ve entered the flower card into the Simon Says Stamp Ray of Sunshine Monday Challenge.

 

 

MORE INSPIRATION & WATERCOLORING

Looking for more watercoloring ideas? Check out these recent cards I have created using some of my favorite watercolor techniques! Clicking on the pictures will take you to the cooresponding blog post.

[one_third padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”][/one_third][one_third padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”][/one_third][one_third_last padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”][/one_third_last]

Speaking of watercolor, there is a fabulous class over at Online Card Classes that features the amazing talents of Dawn Woleslagle. She is the lead demonstrator for the class and features many fabulous ways for you to take your watercoloring talents up a notch. Registration for the class is lifetime and can be found here: Watercolor for Cardmakers Intermediate Techniques

 

 

PRODUCTS

[one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Simon Says Dies and Stamps Set LET’S GO FLY A KITE SetLGF167 Better Together *[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
My Favorite Things WATERCOLOR STRIPES BACKGROUND Cling Stamp MFT BG60[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Memory Box STITCHED HEART LAYERS Open Studio Craft Die MB30013[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Pretty Pink Posh TWINE AND BOWS Steel Craft Dies [/one_fifth][one_fifth_last padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Altenew BIRTHDAY GREETINGS Clear Stamp Set[/one_fifth_last]

[one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
My Favorite Things CROSS STITCH RECTANGLE STAX Die-Namics MFT652[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Simon Says Stamp STITCHED RECTANGLES Wafer Dies sssd111455 In Stitches[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Canson XL WATERCOLOR PAPER 9×12 Pad 726259[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Pretty Pink Posh 6MM SUGAR PLUM MIX Cupped Sequins[/one_fifth][one_fifth_last padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Pretty Pink Posh 4MM SUGAR PLUM MIX Cuped Sequins[/one_fifth_last]

[one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Pretty Pink Posh SPARKLING CLEAR MIX Cupped Sequins PPP120[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Pretty Pink Posh 4MM PINK BLUSH Cupped Sequins[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Pretty Pink Posh 4MM CLEAR DROPLETS (small)[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Pretty Pink Posh 6MM CLEAR DROPLETS (medium)[/one_fifth][one_fifth_last padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
ZIG Wink of Stella GLITTER CLEAR Brush Tip Marker 025320[/one_fifth_last]

[one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
WHITE FUN FOAM 12 Pack 118711 9 x 12[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White 660425[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
MISTI PRECISION STAMPER Stamping Tool Kit [/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Tsukineko Versamark EMBOSS INK PAD Watermark VM-001[/one_fifth][one_fifth_last padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Ranger Embossing Powder SUPER FINE WHITE EPJ36678[/one_fifth_last]

[one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Ranger Embossing Powder SILVER EPJ37361[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad CRACKED PISTACHIO TIM43218[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad SCATTERED STRAW Ranger TIM21483[/one_fifth][one_fifth padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”]
Hero Arts Stencil TILE WORK SA015 [/one_fifth][one_fifth_last padding=”5px 5px 5px 5px”][/one_fifth_last]