Watercolor Fun

Recently I have been playing with my Twinkling H2Os watercolor pots. I found them in a drawer and thought “I haven’t seen these in a long time! Let’s play with them and see if I like them.”

Twinkling H2Os

I love them!

I have been using images I have stamped and embossed on black cardstock. Then I watercolor them.

Watercolored images waiting to be made into cards

Completed cards:

J

The Twinkling H2Os really shimmer and shine!

I especially like Personal Stamp Exchange large botanical stamps. These are from the 1990’s, but you can still find them for sale on Etsy and eBay.

Any largish size stamp works for this look. I try to choose stamps that have open areas rather than a lot of fussy details.

Stamp by Stampin’ Up!

I have experimented with embossing powders in Silver, Copper and White, in addition to the Gold.

Silver:

Copper:

White:

My favorite is the gold embossing, although the silver is nice every now and then. I will continue to try a few different colored powders with other stamps.

I have also tried different dark colored cardstock. Black remains my favorite, but dark brown and dark navy work well too.

This one was stamped/embossed on navy:

Stamp by Stampin’ Up!

This one is stamped/embossed on dark brown:

This one I used maroon cardstock:

These neutral tans seem to work also, although the colors don’t ‘pop’ quite as much:

I did a little reading about twinkling H2Os. They suggest you take the caps off and spritz them all with a spray of water. Let that soak in and after a few minutes they are ready for you to start painting.

I have not tried that.

I get water droplets on my paint brush and wet the watercolor pot with that. Then I swirl and start. I find they do need frequent dips of your brush into water to keep the pigments rich and vivid.

I have several large angel and fairy stamps - but - people faces really do not watercolor well on black!

The above card is a good example of what not to do! Large open areas really are best for this technique. The colors get lost with a lot of fine detail.

However, you also do not want large areas of embossing, as then there is nowhere to watercolor!

I ordered some extra colors on eBay. I did not have a good white or yellow. Even with the new colors, white and yellow are very difficult to apply a smooth look, or even to cover the black cardstock very well.

I didn’t want all my cards to look alike, so in a few I tore or cut the image out after watercoloring. This added a nice variety look, I think. What do you think?

I love stained glass look stamps with these watercolors. Stampin’ Up! had a couple of nice sets, retired now.

Excited about these shimmery watercolors yet? Can’t find Twinkling H2Os anywhere? I reached out to RubberStampMadness, a rubber stamp themed magazine, to see what they recommended. Their first suggestion was to mix watercolors with a powder like Pearl Ex. While I do have Pearl Ex, I don’t really want to spend the time to do a lot of mixing.

For pre-made watercolors their first suggestion was 

Finetec (Coliro) Artist Mica Watercolors

Type in the name to your browser, and you can find places to purchase these.

The second was

Kuretake Gansai Tambi Starry Colors

The third suggestion was

MozArt Komorebi

This one seemed to have the most color choices.

I recently purchased a fantastic set of watercolors on Amazon. It has neon, shimmery, metallic and regular watercolors. It also came in a handy tin box with a set of brushes and an eraser, all for less than $20.00.

It is by Artistro.

The shimmery colors are similar to Twinkling H2Os. I do love the 100 different color choices.

Even though I have stamped/embossed the same image, I think you can get a nice variety of looks depending on your color combinations and how you mount the images.

Here are a few more examples:

I hope you are encouraged to get out your watercolors and play. Consider checking out some of these shimmery watercolors to add a new, fresh look to your art. But most of all, just enjoy creating something today.

‘Til next time,

inkspired

A few websites I checked out for this blog:

rsmadness.com

Pinterest 

Amazon.com

Etsy.com

eBay

Decoupaged Glass Plates tutorial

Hello all,
Well, today I am going to jump in and try my hand at showing a tutorial. The project is super simple with the right tools and product.
Don't even talk to me about doing a video!

Decoupaged Glass Plate Tutorial:
you will need:
   clear glass plate clean, oil free (fingerprints, etc.)
   ModPodge matte, gloss or glitter!
   sponge brush
   glass of water for glue brushes
   plastic lid or plate to pour glue into
   damp rag/paper towel for finger clean up during project
   newspapers to cover your craft surface
   craft mat or placemat size rectangle of waxed paper
   pretty napkins
   sharp scissors

Step 1
  Spread newspapers, wax paper etc. to cover work surface
  Get damp rag and place in a bowl or on plastic plate/lid
  Prepare napkins:
      remove extra plies so you have only one ply of decorated napkin. You can use the leftover white napkin plies in later steps and also use them as napkins!

Step 2

   Cut motifs from napkins. Cut many more than you think you will need!

Very Important: lay out your napkin cuttings frequently so you have an idea for placement. Continue to do this as you cut.



Do your final placement layout.



Now is the time to trace and cut out a background sheet of tissue paper or napkin. This is when the other napkin plain plies will work well.

Set aside.

Step 3
   Pour a glob of ModPodge onto plastic lid.
   Place clear glass plate FACE DOWN.
   Spread a little glue to cover where you want to put your first napkin cutting.
   Place napkin cutting FACE DOWN, and dab more glue on with brush.

tip: remember that you will be placing your motifs down from the front to the back.
Example - if you are gluing down a watering can full of flowers, you will first place the watering can down. Then you will place flowers on top of that, so when finished the flowesr will be inside (or behind) the can. Then you will place any clouds/sky on top of the flowers, so the finished scene will look like clouds in the back, flowers in vase.

   Continue spreading a little glue, placing napkin motifs and dabbing with more glue until all your first pieces are in place.



Problem?  It is very easy to tear the thin napkin pieces. You can smoosh some of them together with the wet glue. Hate it? Remove it quickly and do another piece instead. Or, make the tears part of your overall look, and be sure to do more of them. Think crackled Venetian vases or old paintings.

tip: make sure all the napkin pieces are covered with glue.

Step 4

Set aside on wax paper. Let dry.

Now is the perfect time to start on another glass plate or bowl, while your first is drying a bit.

Here, my lovely assistant Pam is starting on a small bowl. She has cut out a few pansy motifs from one napkin, then has taken another blue striped napkin and torn it into small strips.

Remember! You are gluing napkin pieces face down onto the bottom outside of the bowl.

Pam has glued a few pansy motifs first, and is then applying blue strips on top of them.

Step 5

Pick up your dry/wet glass plate carefully.

Get the set aside one large piece of tissue paper/napkin that you have cut out.

You can now apply the covering "back" layer. This usually goes on top of all your glued pieces, but doesn't have to. Play around with looks, but do this BEFORE you start gluing things down! It is very difficult if not impossible to remove motifs once the glue has started to set (which is within seconds sometimes!)

Remember your steps: Put down a layer of ModPodge first, being careful not to tear or smoosh the already glued down motifs. Then place tissue paper/napkin on top and dab glue to cover it all. If you don't get glue everywhere on this step, it will leave a dry spot that is okay but doesn't look great!

This plate is drying. After first layer of napkins, I am now adding a layer of yellow behind the lion, and torn strips of light blue and white napkins around the edge.

Step 6
Set aside to dry thoroughly.
Go back to your second bowl, plate or whatever, and apply finishing touches.
Here is a Happy Birthday bowl that I made.
Here it is done, but drying:

Here it is dry, and shows you the unfinished edges where the tissue paper is sticking up. I actually did this on purpose, to give a finished edge when I am done .

 

Here I am holding the bowl up to the light so you can see it at a different angle.

I used a mixture of matte ModPodge, and glitter ModPodge.



Step 7

Finish up any decoupaged pieces you have more steps to do.

If you want to do a small piece now you can decoupage small candle cups, or in this case, we used mini clay pots:

Here are the finished products:

In the above 2 photos you can see the mini bowl and the bunny plate still need their edges finished.

Step 8 Final
Take an old emery board or file. File off the tissue edges that are sticking up away from the rims. Smooth the edges with the file, as needed.

Well, just hmmmm. I have no idea why this particular picture is tipped wrong. It isn't in my saved files that way! Sorry, guess you will just have to turn your head or hold your monitor up sideways!

Here are our finished samples:

 Oh just ick. Guess that is what learning new things is all about! I will have to play with this photo issue, but I do want to get this wonderful and easy craft to you, so please just bear with me, and do that crooky neck thing!

This is the plate I did years ago:

front:

back:

 laid down on  white napkings to show detail:

Yes! Those pansies and leaves are from a napkin!!

Here are some last minute finishing tips:

These are decorative plates and not meant to be washed. If needed, you can wipe the glass surface with a damp cloth, and dry immediately.

They are NOT food safe unless you spray with food safe finish.

The back side can often feel 'sticky', even after it is dry. Use a clear acrylic spray to eliminate this. I like Kryon.

Check and see, I believe there are food-safe sprays that you can use! After spraying with this kind of spray, you can put food on the plate, but still only hand wash with very mild soap and rinse with a damp rag.

If you can't find the food safe spray, or just want to use the clear acrylic spray, that's fine. You can put wrapped candy on you plate if you wish. You could use it as a serving plate for pre-wrapped tea bags, or 3 little tea cups. How about a creamer/sugar set?

I think the birthday bowl would be a great place to anchor some birthday balloons!

I hope you have enjoyed my first tutorial.

Print these out on sticker paper, and have fun decorating cards, lunch boxes or Easter eggs!

inkspired

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

dominoes@myinkspired.com