Watercolored Thinking of You Card (Kathy Berger)

Watercolored Thinking of You Card

by Kathy Berger


I really struggle with watercoloring. It may be that I am too impatient to let layers dry. It may be that I tend to "overwork" a piece, muddying it in the process. It may be that I am a control freak and letting the water and the paint decide the final result makes me a bit nuts. But it is most likely all three of the above! Lol.

I am taking an online class on watercoloring in stamping. It has been wonderful watching the incredible instructors share their tips, tricks, and talent, but then comes time to try to do the "homework" and put it all into practice...and it kind of falls apart. But I think I did okay on this assignment on wet-on-wet techniques. I know it is still a bit overworked, but I did let it dry between layers (okay...I started to use a heat gun to help with that and almost burned my paper, setting off my smoke alarm in the process!), and I did manage to let the water do some of the work. I have to say I don't hate it. But I think the stamp had a lot to do with that! I just love this Frantic Stamper image.

I stamped the image onto the smooth side of a piece of watercolor paper using peeled paint distress ink that I had stamped off once. I then used watercolors, water, and brush to color the image, working on one area at a time, ensuring not to paint near an area that was already wet so as not to cause the paint to bleed together. I applied clear water to the area first, then added color, lightly at first, and gradually building up layers and adding darker color where desired, drying between each layer of color.

Here is a close-up of the flower. I do like the depth of color, the flow of the paint, and the shadows and highlights that I managed to get. I would say not terrible for a first-try, and I may actually get the hang of the technique in time!



I trimmed the finished flower to 3 15/16"x5 3/16", mounted it to a navy blue panel that was 4 1/8"x5 3/8", and then mounted that to a standard sized card made out of heavy card-stock (watercolor paper tends to warp a little from wetting and drying so the heavy card-stock helps to keep it flat). A simple sentiment on a hand-cut flag finished the card.



I hope you enjoyed seeing my card nearly as much as I enjoyed making it. I still have a lot to learn, but I am loving the process!

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*** Materials for this project available at www.franticstamper.com.

Frantic Stamper Stamp Used:

• Giant Bloom

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