watercolor

When watercoloring, we know that we need to get the ink on the brush and on to the paper.  But how do we do that?  The ink is on the ink pad or in the ink refill bottle.

There are a few different options for this that I’ve seen.  The first option, which is the one I most often use, is putting the ink in the lid of the open ink pad and picking up the ink from the lid.  There are two different ways to do this:

• You can squish the ink pad so that the ink transfers from the foam pad to the lid.  This is a little hard to do with Stampin’ Up!’s new ink pads but if you place the closed ink pad with the lid down on your work surface and apply firm pressure to the back of the ink pad you should be able to get some ink transferred to the lid. 
• Or you can put a drop or two of the ink refill in the lid of the ink pad. 

The other two methods that I know of use a clear stamping block.

• In the first block method you put a drop of the ink on a clear block and pick up the ink from there.
• The second block method is to take your ink pad and apply it to the block (or apply the block to the ink pad).

In all of these methods you get the ink in/on a place where it is easy to pick up with the brush.  Now that you have the basics it’s we can move on to some techniques.   Stay tuned!  Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

July is National Watercolor Month!  I love the look of water coloring, don’t you?  I’m definitely not an expert with water coloring but I can give it my best shot.  If you don’t practice, you don’t improve.  Am I right?

Today I’d like to introduce you to the basic tools that you will need to watercolor.   To get started you will need paper, brush, paint and of course, water!  Stampin’ Up! has these basics covered for us. 

Paper:  Stampin’ Up! carries Watercolor Paper (#149612 $9) as well as Shimmery White cardstock (#101910 $10). Both of these papers work well to watercolor with.  Watercolor Paper is a thick, textured, absorbent paper which is made specifically for water coloring.  Shimmery White cardstock is slightly thicker than Stampin’ Up!’s Basic White cardstock with a little shimmer to it.    

Brushes:  Stampin’ Up! doesn’t carry basic paint brushes but they do carry Water Painters (#151298 $13).  Water Painters are a set of 3 brushes, each containing a small reservoir for water.  To fill the Water Painter, hold the tip end and gently unscrew the reservoir.  (It may twist in the opposite direction that you think it should twist).  Fill with water (not completely full) and screw the reservoir back on to the tip.  A light squeeze of the reservoir wets the brush tip.  The set comes with a large flat brush tip, a small brush tip and a medium brush tip.

Paint:  Stampin’ Up! doesn’t carry paint but they do carry 50 colors of ink which work perfectly to watercolor with.  You will need an ink pad and/or an ink refill of that color to watercolor with. With these basic tools you can start watercoloring!  I hope you have them in your craft room!  Have a great day.  Take care and Happy Stamping!