Today marks the release of two new sets from Whipper Snapper, illustrated by Anna Wight, and it’s my privilege to be among the folks who will be sharing designs with these images this month. Anna has a lot more info for you so please check here to get the full scoop. The sets I’ll be using are a floral set called Blossoms & Butterflies, and a collection of sentiments called Blooming Expressions — they’re perfect for each other. The sentiments are many and varied and exceptionally useful. The floral images are whimsical, sweet and drawn in Anna’s trademark style which has become so familiar and well loved among stampers. They’re also perfect for what I have in mind for Coloring Today — some very basic watercoloring.
This is watercoloring with inks – something every stamper has. To get the very best results you really should use watercolor paper because of its ability to absorb water without warping. It’s not hard to come by. The first watercolor paper I bought was a tablet from Wal-Mart. It worked just fine but the surface wasn’t very smooth. The paper I use most frequently now was purchased in tablet form at a local art supply store — 100% cotton, 140 lb, cold pressed grain fin. It has some texture but not too much.
Usually I’ll just squeeze the closed stamp pad to press a little ink into the lid. Hold the pad with both hands with your thumbs in the center of the lid. Squeeze until you feel the lid make contact with the pad. You don’t need reinkers for watercoloring but they’re convenient if you’re covering a large area. Also, if you do a lot of watercoloring you’ll probably need to reink your pad more frequently.
Below are two of the Stampin’ Up! pads I used for watercoloring my image. The Mauve Mist (retired) on the left is shown with a drop of reinker. I use the lid like a palette — use a wet brush to pull a little ink from the drop and mix it with water from the brush to dilute to desired shade. Add more water or more ink, if necessary. I keep a scrap of watercolor paper handy on which to test my color, but I’m not real fussy about it. I use it either very dilute or very pure — I put more emphasis on the amount of water I have on the paper, which we’ll talk about in a minute.
The Close to Cocoa pad on the right is shown with ink squeezed into the lid. I pull the concentrated ink to a different area of the lid to mix with water, using the same principles as stated above.
Stamp the image in waterproof ink. I used Jet Black Stazon for this image. It’s one flower stamped twice. The first image was masked. The butterfly is a separate image.
I like to start by coloring the whole image with a very dilute base coat. I used Mauve Mist, Close to Cocoa and Certainly Celery.
The next step is to add a little shading. Start with just one petal. Paint the entire petal with water first, taking care to stay within the lines. Then dab or paint a line of ink along the edge of the petal. The ink will disperse and gradually fade out. When it hits a dry area it will abruptly stop spreading, which means the ink won’t spread outside the petal unless you painted the water outside the lines. The wetter the paper, the more the ink will spread. In a small area like this petal, you won’t want too much water or else the ink will spread all the way across the petal – then you won’t have shading, you’ll just have a darker petal. Try it out on a scrap piece first.
This photo shows the shaded flowers. The flower on the left was shaded with Mauve Mist, the same color as the base coat but applied full strength to the wet petal. You could stop there and call those petals finished and they’d look just fine. However, I decided to add more shading with Bravo Burgundy. I did it the same as described above, but with less water. I also shaded the flower’s cone with Close to Cocoa.
When you use less water, there’s a chance the line won’t blend as smoothly. When this happens, use a clean wet brush to paint toward the shaded line — water only. You don’t want to pull the darker ink into the light areas, you simply want to soften the blended edge.
A little tip: Is the painted area too dark? Did you apply too much ink in a certain area? To remedy this, paint it again with water, then press with a paper towel. It will effectively lift enough ink to give you a chance to start over.
Another tip: Can you see right off the bat that you put too much water on your paper? Is it sort of pooled up on the paper? Touch the edge of a paper towel to the water and the excess will be absorbed. Don’t press the towel onto the image unless you also want to remove ink.
You can add a glow if so desired. This photo shows the entire image painted and shaded as described above, with the glow added around one flower and the butterfly so you can compare them with and without the glow. I call it a glow because I used So Saffron to highlight the image. This same process would be used with a darker ink to create a shadow. The glow can be any color your heart desires.
It’s very easy to create the glow or shading around the image, using the same process that was used for shading the rest of the image — wet the paper first, then dab ink into the wet area. When doing the glow I always wet a larger area than I actually need — this allows the gradual fade out with no abrupt edge. The wetter the paper, the more the ink will spread and the softer the glow will be. The glow will not spread into your image if you allow the main image to dry first. It doesn’t take long.
So there it is, main image complete with a subtle glow. I kept my layout simple, using my new Prism papers — Spring Willow light and medium, and Iced Azalea. The sentiment stamped very nicely on the lightly textured paper. It reads “Count your blessings one petal at a time.” The Blooming Expressions set is full of flower related sentiments as well as birthday, thinking of you, sympathy — it covers many different occasions.
Aren’t these images cute? I’ve always loved Anna’s style. They’re the type of images that allow you the freedom to do pretty much whatever you want with them — such as a green butterfly. Every year my kitchen window screen becomes peppered with such an interesting variety of moths. The prettiest is a small one that’s a lovely, delicate shade of green.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Once again, it’s long but I wouldn’t want to leave anything out. It takes longer to explain the process than it does to actually do it. Take care, now, and have a wonderful day!
