Hi, in today’s video I am exploring using white gouache with traditional watercolours to create opaque mixes I can paint over a coloured background. My card was inspired by the gorgeous Rifle Paper Company flower patterns they use on their many products. I was particularly drawn to a pattern with pink, peach and white florals with deep teal leaves over a muted aqua background and thought I’d have a go at recreating the style with the recently release Moments Of Grace stamp set from Simon Says Stamp. This set has the most beautiful script sentiments along with a few delicately drawn flowers and leaves. I’ve linked all supplies at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links used where possible at no cost to you.
VIDEO
Watch below or in HD on YouTube.
GOUACHE + WATERCOLOUR PAINTED FLOWERS
To start my card I needed to create the muted aqua background to paint the flowers on top of. As I will be painting on this background later I decided to use Arches Hot Pressed watercolour card. This has a smooth texture and so will make stamping the images later on a little easier. I could have painted a traditional watercolour background but I wanted to create a smooth, solid colour without much texture. I could have mixed a gouache and used that but as this is a large area for the background I decided that the easiest method was to blend ink over the surface. I started with Cloudy Sky ink from Simon Says Stamp and a Picket Fence blending brush but despite the smooth surface of the hot pressed card the fibres within the card still left a pretty mottled background, not the smooth one I was looking for. So I tried rubbing the ink pad directly to the panel, which was better but still not quite where I wanted it to be. So I picked up a water mister and spritzed the background with lots of water and this did the job. The ink blended into the fibres of the card to leave a smooth, solidly coloured background.
I dried the panel thoroughly with a heat tool and then placed it in the Mini Misti. I reached for the Moments Of Grace stamp set and chose the Thinking Of You sentiment which I lined up on the background using a T square ruler to ensure I had it on straight. I then treated the card with an anti-static powder bag which as I’m going to emboss the sentiment, will help prevent embossing powder from randomly sticking everywhere. I then stamped the greeting in clear embossing ink and I did this a few times until I got a good impression. I then sprinkled with white embossing powder and tidied away any specks of stray powder with a dry paintbrush before heat setting. Despite the powder bag and sweeping around the sentiment with the paintbrush I still found I had a few random spots of embossing however, these were easy to fix by scraping away the excess with a scalpel and then rubbing over the area with an eraser to smooth the surface again.
Moving on and with the greeting in place, I stamped the flowers and leaves. I decided on a design where the florals were all hanging down from the top of the card and so I stamped the various images from the Moments Of Grace set in clear embossing ink. I actually like how the tone on tone flowers look and I also thought that these flowers and leaves would look lovely white heat embossed too and left as a monochrome card. However, I still had plans to paint over the guidelines left by the clear embossing ink. To give variation and fill in a few places I also used a couple of images from the So Loved set from Simon Says Stamp. I kept nestling one image next to the other until I had a border of florals stamped along the top third of the card.
And so with the floral border now planned out with the clear embossing ink It was time to turn to the paint. Gouache is an opaque watercolour and so you can paint light colours over dark and vice versa. You can buy gouache already coloured but a great way to stretch your supplies is to use a tube of white gouache and mix with it any traditional watercolours you have to hand. The white gouache in the mix means that the resulting paint will be opaque. To start I mixed a peachy pink colour with the white gouache from Winsor & Newton and then a little Daniel Smith Quinacridone Coral and Hansa Yellow Light added. I kept mixing the three paints until I had the colour I was after. I then took a small paintbrush and painted over the flowers.
Painting with gouache results in a flat matt area and has quite an illustrative feel to the style. As I painted I made sure to fully cover the tone on tone inked guidelines. Being opaque, the paint easily covered over the lines but I needed to make sure I went right to the edges of each image to cover over the lines and ensure that my edges were clean and crisp without a darker halo around them from the stamped lines.
The aim with painting with gouache is to lay down a block of colour which when dry you can come back to and add details. As I continued to paint I used white gouache mixed with Perylene Green to create a dark teal. I used a little of this mixture to mute a green I mixed with Green Gold and white gouache. I also brought in some muted yellow tones by mixing Quinacridone Gold with white gouache. Oh, and in places, I used white gouache on its own. With the first layer down, I went back in and added more details, veining for leaves, extra sweeps of colour to the petals and for these, I mixed either lighter or darker colours that I’d already been using. I did add in a little Sepia for the stems to some of the leaf sprigs and some Lunar Black for the centres of the flowers. I added a couple of hand-painted flowers and berries as well as dots of white gouache in places to fill in any gaps.
Although my gouache painting is far from perfect I still really like the overall look and know that with practice I will improve. I like adding a different style to my repertoire and it is also great to stretch the supplies I have already. I love to use my traditional paints for watercolouring and I highly recommend a tube of white gouache for opaque white details, paint splatter etc never mind adding in this technique.
I trimmed the panel to be slightly smaller than an A2 card base added foam adhesive to the back and then adhered to a white card. To embellish I added a few Girl’s Best Friend sequins from Simon Says Stamp and Pastel Paradise sequins from Little Things From Lucy’s Cards and kept them in place with Gina K Connect Glue. I then decided to cover the white painted dots with Simply White Nuvo Crystal Drops instead to add more texture and dimension.
GIVEAWAY
One of my lovely blog readers, Sabine, has a $25 Concord & 9th gift card which she can’t use due to the hassles of customs where she lives and she so very kindly has asked if I can give it away to another lucky reader here instead. Please leave a comment below and by 11.59pm ET 31 December and I will pick a winner in the new year. Thank you, Sabine!
THANK YOU
I want to take this moment to wish you a wonderful end to 2018 whether you celebrate the Holidays or not, I want to thank you for your time, support and encouragement. I know this time of year can be hard for many, I for sure miss loved ones and do not cope that well with the stress that trying to be on top of everything often brings on. The stamp set I used on this card is called Moments Of Grace from Simon Says Stamp. I think we should all give ourselves a few moments of grace and accept that done is better than perfect.
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. Thank you! Items marked with an asterisk (*) were provided by a store or the manufacturer. You can read my affiliate and product disclosure here. I genuinely 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
Beautiful work! And I love the sequin accents!
I really like the colors. This is lovely.
Debby. This is my favorite card you have done! It is so beautiful and is reminiscent of Rifle for sure! Thank you for sharing your creativity and as always helpful tutorial. Happy New Year! Off to order my gouache!
I always love your elegent cards. This one is truly lovely. I don’t do watercolour but I do have some gouache and inks, so may give this a go. And just a wee hiya from Scotland.
*waving* from central Scotland! Thanks for calling by Beth :D
That gouache card is absolutely stunning! Thank you for the tip of adding watercolor to white gouache!