The most common thing I hear when I demonstrate watercoloring is that people can’t seem to make it look “right”. Guess what? There are some easy tricks that will make your watercolor look ‘right’ every time. Here’s a card that we made at stamp club last week, using the soon-to-be-retired Beary Best Friends stamp set (see it online).
Beary Best Friends and the matching Beary Nice Wishes set (see it online) will be available along with the rest of the Build-A-Bear Product Suite (see it online) but only until May 31st (learn about the retiring items & sale).
The bear is on the inside of the card — peeking through the window!
Tips to make your watercolor look fantastic:
- Use Stampin’ Up! Watercolor Paper for best effects. I know, it sounds like I just want you to buy paper from me… but I’ve tried other papers from big craft stores, and they just don’t work right. If you want to be successful, it’s important to start with good quality materials.
- Draw a small line with a Stampin’ Write Marker where you want color to be darkest.
- Use Aqua Painters to wet the line and move the color around on the paper – leave blank spots to get an authentic watercolor effect.
- Remember that you can always add more color, but it’s tricky to remove color if you start with too much.
- Outline with River Rock Stampin’ Write Marker & blend to finish. This will keep your image ‘anchored’ to the paper and add dimension to the background so that it doesn’t look flat.
Looking for more Build A Bear ideas? Here are several on my blog.
Or more watercoloring technique samples? Here you go! Or if you’re looking for ideas on Watercolor Wonder Crayons, here’s a how-to video tutorial from my blog.
Happy Watercoloring! (and stamping)