Get your brushes wet...Watercolor dots!

I love the look of watercolors and have found that my favorite way to get that look is to use water soluble oil pastels. The pastels are like crayons and they easily create varying levels of color and are very simple to use.

Here's the layout I created.

Because they are like crayons it is very easy to just draw on your paper. You can either wet your paper with a brush or dip your crayon into water.  I often then follow this step with a wet brush to soften the design further.

As you can see from the the photo above,  I also discovered you can easily draw inside small shapes like this stencil.

I worked with a wet tip and simple filled in a little bit of every space on the outside of the design.

I used a slightly damp foam stencil dauber to spread the color around.  Doing this I was able to create an ombre effect.


Finally, I painted the edges of the layout with the watercolor using the same wet tip and paint brush technique.

Here's another trick.  I almost always work on my non-stick craft matte. It's a great place to puddle some paint.  You could also do this on a plastic paint palette.

Here are some close ups and the layout again.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: GCD Studios Country Charm, Paper Ribbon: GCD Studios, Stickers: American Crafts, Journaling Stamps: Studio Calico and Making Memories, Brads: Crate Paper, Punch: Fiskars

I hope this inspires you to pull out your water colors. In addition to Oil Pastel Crayons, water color pencils are also another very easy way to dabble in water colors.  Go ahead, get your brushes wet!!

Watercolored roses for special days

Sorry I've been a little absent recently.  Life is good and full.

Today I'm sharing some scrapbook love!

This layout is a celebration of our 20th wedding anniversary.  It was a special day for us and it was made even more special when my dear husband came home with 2 dozen roses! This coming from a man who rarely buys flowers.  He's just too practical to buy something that is only going to last a couple days.  I guess I need to teach him how to make paper roses and then they will last forever.

So in honor of those beautiful roses and our special day I created this a layout using the GCD Studios Splendor Line. It's so romantic and lovely.

Here is a close up.

To create the rose, I started by die cutting flower parts.  I'm sure there are lots of shapes that would work.  Generally, rose patterns you find use a heart shaped edge.  These are the parts I chose to work with.

You'll notice that I cut one of the heart shapes off the left flower.  That allowed me to close it in tightly to form the center of the rose.

Then I began water coloring.  I used water soluble oil pastels, but any water color media would work.  I like to use the oil pastel crayons because you can wet the crayon and drag it along the edge of what you want to color.  Like this.

Then I blend the edges with a damp brush.  Sometimes, I create a little puddle of paint on my plastic craft matte and add a little more color.

After I finish painting the edges, I carefully rolled the edges round a thin tool.  I use a handle of a distressing tool, but a small paint brush edge would work too.

You want to take a little care here because the paper is rather delicate because it's wet.

I continue to shape it until it's dry.  I also found that I needed to add a little glue to the inside edges of the middle to make them stay closed the way I wanted.

Here's another look at the final rose I created with the Splendor patterned paper.  I like the depth the pattered paper added.

For the 20 in the title, I cut a similar color paper from the collection and painted the edges.  When the edges began to curl, I exaggerated that curl and let them dry to that shape.  I love the dimension that created.

 

Here's another look at the final layout.

 
Supplies: Patterned papers: GCD Studios Splendor Collection, Water Soluble Oil Pastels: Portfolio Series, Die Cut Machine: Slice; Noteworthy, Think Pink &Vintage Findings cards, Stamp: Making Memories, Chipboard letters: American Crafts, Sticker: Studio Calico, Brad: Crate Paper.

Happy May!

I just love the month of May!  It always is a crazy busy month, but usually such fun too!  I mean who can't love being spoiled for having the best job in the world?  Mother's Day is the best!

Things are blooming around here still. The Rhododendrons are so pretty. They remind me of the azaleas back home.

I was slightly disappointed to find they weren't the same color flowers, because that's what I thought I purchased, but they are both so pretty.  I've gotten over that!

Things are blooming in this month's issue of the Paper Cut as well!!

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

Be sure to check it out!!