Oh, I had such fun watercolouring these poinsettias! Today’s post is part of a blog hop, more details of which are below. Actually, this is my second blog hop of the day. You check out the Simon Says Stamp Holiday Blog Hop here. I’ve linked all supplies at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links used.
Seriously, I was in watercolour heaven painting these poinsettias. I purposely set aside a little time to just play with my paints, and it was so therapeutic. Using the Poinsettia set from Simon Says Stamp I stamped three poinsettias and a few leaves using Antique Linen distress ink on watercolour card. I didn’t mask the images as I stamped and overlapped them, but simply wiped away the ink where I thought the layers would overlap. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t perfect as this lightly coloured Distress Ink disappears when painted.
I took my time and enjoyed the process of slowly building the layers of watercolour, starting with really pale tones and then building up to deeper and deeper layers of colour. Although I used a few watercolours, the main ones were Pyrrol Scarlet for the flowers and Undersea Green for the leaves.
To help the poinsettias pop from the background I added a light Sepia wash and then splattered the whole panel with a really good dose of Perfect Pearls – you can never have too much perfect pearl splatter in my opinion! I also used Faber Castell pencils to add some more delicate details and to deepen some of the shadows. Always make sure you are using a sharp pencil. I like to use this pencil sharpener – you get an excellent sharp point and can choose the length of the lead to suit your preference.
I die cut the watercoloured panel with a Wonky Rectangle and then added a Season’s Greetings sentiment die cut from DCWV gold glitter card. I mounted the panel on a Desert Storm card base and added gold sequins to accent.
NO-LINE WATERCOLOURING TIPS & TRICKS
- I loved making this card and although it might appear complex, it is based on one stamp set, an ink pad and a few watercolours.
- Use a light water reactive ink such as Antique Linen Distress Ink to stamp your scene. The light ink leaves a guide for you to paint but disappears as you watercolour to leave a no-line watercolour look.
- Start watercolouring with the lightest wash of the base colour – the palest pink for the poinsettia flowers and the lightest green for the leaves.
- Let each layer dry before adding the next and slowly add deeper layers of colour, concentrating the darker colours where you would naturally find shadows such as the centre of the flower and the leaves where they are shaded by the flowers.
- Remember that watercolour often looks a hot mess before it starts to look nice!
- Use sharp coloured pencils to add fine details.
BLOG HOP
Today’s post is part of a blog hop run by Amanda Korotkova to raise awareness of the health benefits of crafting. Amanda has details of her journey – please take the time to pop on over and read Amanda’s story as it is very inspiring.
For myself, crafting carves out that little bit of ‘me’ time. That may sound insignificant but when I started crafting I had three young children and was feeling rather overwhelmed with my whole life focused only on my children. I felt a shell of the strong, independent person I had once been. As I made time for myself in the evenings and nap time to explore my creative side, I found a little of the equilibrium that was missing before. I had interests outside of being a Mum, and as a result, I strongly believe I was a better parent for it, and I certainly benefitted from regaining some balance. Now my children are older, you would think that life would be a little calmer, but I think the focus changes from the time-consuming day to day care of young children to the stresses as these young adults find their feet in life – we are currently deep in to the decision making process of choosing a career path, university and course for my daughter. And yes, painting these poinsettias the other evening helped me to take just a moment away from those stresses and come back refreshed to tackle the next university open day and support my daughter as she wrote her personal statement for the application. We are parents for life but making time for ourselves is also important too.
Some great companies offered to sponsor the blog hop, and there will be:
- Six $20 gift cards to the Simon Says Stamp store (one for each stop on the hop)
- $25 gift card to Concord & 9th
- $30 gift card to Pretty Pink Posh
- $25 gift card to Waffle Flower
- Two $20 vouchers to Kit and Clowder
The winners will be chosen at random from the comments left on all the posts on this hop by 11:59 pm EST on October 17th and will be announced on the Little Crafty Pill blog on October 19th.
SUPPLIES
You can find links to the supplies I’ve used below; click on the picture or shop icon to get taken directly to the product. Where available I use compensated affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. You can read my affiliate and product disclosure here. I truly appreciate your support.
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PIN ME
Summary of the project which gives all the views of the card in one photo :D I’d love if you pinned and called by on Pinterest :D
WOW, a stunning card, I sure wish I could watercolor like that, I have all sorts of things to water color with but just have never got the hang of it. sigh!! I did pin it too!!
Beautiful card! Thank you for sharing ^__^
Absolutly amazing watercoloring! So beautiful!!!
Oh my….this is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I want so badly to be able to create such beautiful water coloring. Thank you for sharing!
Really love your supplies list! That’s incredibly helpful and your techniques are beautiful!
awesome so so pretty
Gorgeous card!!