Jump Start your Creativity with Watercolor Cards Class review

Washi tape and watercolor goes well together

The right kind of paint makes all the difference

NO Stamped Card! Die cut and washi tape

 
I love when artists share their unique style and paint the way that makes them happy. Angela Fehr has a style that makes me thank heaven that she was bold and courageous in creating in the way she does! It takes a lot of courage to paint in a style that is your own, Angela does this so effortlessly.

Angela's way of teaching is perfect for the hobbyist, and the seasoned crafter, the techniques are not "trendy"  but something you can take away using for trends, for example, she brings in Lindsey or better known as the Frugal Crafter. Lindsey shares her secrets to making some beautiful watercolor cards that can be used over and over again, techniques that can get you beautiful results, using watercolor as ink for stamping images, and use stencils and watercolor for card making.


If you are not a traditional stamper (like I use to be) washes, blooms and basic techniques are a great way to start. YOU DONT HAVE TO STAMP TO BE A CARD MAKER! There are beautiful results when you just watercolor. Watercolor cards that use just pigment and brushes can be beautiful by themselves, She shows you how.

I have fallen in love with stamping again, most of my examples are of stamped images, I haven't even touched the surface with what was taught  without a stamp... (I need some courage, stamps are my crutch and they are so darn cute!)

Angela brought in Artist/paper crafter Karin Akesdotter She shares how she uses watercolor to make cards using dies, and how to "finish" watercolor paintings into cards. I have always struggled to finish and polish my cards until they "shine." This segment from Karin was what I was searching for in a watercolor class! Thank you, Karin, for the amazing advice and for Angela for her foresight for her students!

Easy watercolor wash with Tim Holtz Flower Garden Stamp

Angela has a very comprehensive creative watercolor class, everything from resist, to free flowing water wash, which is one of her signature styles to her watercolors. Angela advocates that for every painting session she warms up with a freestyle wash to help her stay loose, I learned that no warm up is wasted when I can use my freestyle wash in a card, or as a die cut for an embellishment for a card, and then I have another way to use up all my warm ups, and sketches.

I loved that she showed you how to use Brushos Pigment Crystals, (I can't wait to try them, Angela, they look like a ton of fun!

You know that I am a huge advocate for creativity. I found this class full of inspiration. the nuggets of information that she shares are valuable beyond just card making, for any watercolorist this is a great class to have taken.



My dear sweet Husband and Mother in law bought me Angela Fehr's Watercolor University for my Birthday in
May, out of all her classes I could have taken, I was super excited for this watercolor card class. #PaperCrafterAtHeart.

Click on this link for a 20% off discount for this course

Watercolor card with Kuretake Starry Colors

Hello, I have a quick and beautiful card that takes longer to paint than to stamp. I love how simple and beautiful this card came to be! This technique is also used to for wet-into-wet. Angela Fehr has a great class on how to make the watercolor background, check it out! You can thank me later her class is awesome!

Or if you are new to watercolor This tutorial is a good one too... Here is a great tutorial on a wet-into-wet technique by one of my favorite youtube channels



I used a yellow and a pink pigment from Gansai Tambi 36 set, and then I added some of the gold starry colors to the yellow watercolors, once you get the yellow mixed (so I used three colors essentially, a pink, yellow, and a gold and the same yellow and mixed them together to create three hues.)

Then for the playing I mean painting: I got my size 14 round brush out and got a juicy brush full of pink, I wanted the pink to be as vibrant as possible, onto a wet/semi gloss saturated with water I lightly brushed my brush into spots that I wanted pink, I wasn't thinking much about where just where I felt needed some pink, then I added the yellow, the same process, if I like the idea of having yellow I painted some yellow down then I added the starry color mix into the paper. Then I played a little bit, DO NOT OVER WORK THE PAINT, the whole idea of this is to make it look loose and free.  Then let it dry overnight, or at least a good hour, you want the paper to bone dry before stamping on it.

Now it's time to get out your MISTI and your outline stamps, (a simple outline stamp will work wonders for this card)  I used Tim Holtz Flower Garden Stamp, and stamp it in black archival ink, mount the watercolor paper onto a card base and I called it done.

My simple design tip: I always like to choose colors that I know will blend well, so usually, analogous colors are my favorite to do for wet-into-wet washes, or for Verigrated washes, that way I don't have to worry too much about mud. If I need a splash of color I wait till after the wet-into-wet part of the paper is dry and go in and do a glaze with a different color, but I like to keep things simple and elegant, so I don't usually do that, but for this card, if I thought I needed green I could have gone back in and added green to the leaves if needed. I felt like the colors were perfect the way there were and I didn't want to chance to lose that feel, which is always the hardest thing an artist has to figure out.

Enjoy your Fourth of July, and Happy Creating!


Affiliated links listed bellow:

use this link for a 20% off discount

E-A-S-Y Stamping with Watercolor

Stamping and watercolor go well together, add flowers to the mix of it and we got a really good combination I think.

Often times cards don't need a lot of extra stuff, This card is a pretty easy card to create. If you are like me you already had some flowers stamped and cut waiting to be made into something. So if that's the case the card is practically done for you! If not drag out your Sizzix, watercolors, stamps and Dies!

I started with two card panels, one to stamp with watercolors, This is a great tutorial for stamping with watercolors from the Frugal Crafter Or if you are needing a better idea on how to stamp with watercolor (using watercolor pigments instead of ink) Take this class, My readers get a 20% discount With Angela Fehr's Creative Watercolor Class for paper crafters.

For the background I used Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks and then blended the blue, green and yellow with a wet brush, let it dry then took Tim Holtz dot grid stencil and took away some of the pigment to give it some texture.

For the Flowers, I watercolor stamped a flower set from Richard Garay with Kuretake Gansia Tambi watercolors (my favorite watercolors for cards.) Then added the flowers together to get a good arrangement of flowers onto the card, Add some bling to the middle and you are done!

My quick tip for making this card: Since you already have the materials and tools out, make a bunch of flowers at the same time, it will save you time later. I like to stamp and cut out 3-4 sets of extra flowers at a time so I have extras when I need some embellishments but don't want to go through all the work again for just one flower. I keep the color of the flowers fairly open-ended when it comes to it so I don't have a crazy color I am trying to work with. I keep with the pinks and yellows.

Can't you see this card being used for a summer wedding or anniversary?
Happy Creating!

To learn more about watercolor cards take an Online Class with Angela Fehr,  Here is a 20% off coupon for the class. Totally worth the time and money!

Affiliated links and supplies list below. By clicking and purchasing from these links you are supporting my blog.

 

Art Journal Autograph book

Before our trip a nice a clean Autograph book

We were blessed to be able to go to Walt Disney World. So for 5 months, I was preparing for this week long dream come true!

Part of this planning was an autograph book. I knew that I wanted something that was personal, and creative. While I was watching an Art Journal class on CreativeBug I knew that I could make an art journal for our trip for autographs, it's a perfect fit for Autograph books!

Here are some of my tips, and How I made it work.

First, you need a good sturdy BOOK, The book I picked out was great until the last day, and it seemed to fall apart. So Get a bound book that can take getting altered. I like the mixed media sketchbooks for that purpose.





I love that art journals have no "rules" as it should be. So be free, when I was creating this journal/autograph book I wasn't thinking too much about the other pages I started in the middle and thought about the mood I wanted, I wanted each page to feel fun and bright and light hearted.

With the mood in mind I found stencils and away I went, I thought about color choices for each stencil and I decided that some pages needed to be simple and others had more saturated pigment than others, I wanted variety and texture on the pages so I used some liquid watercolors in a spray bottle which are super fun to play with!!!!

Other stencils I traced and then colored in the design, and also for some I used a blending technique to blend. Really I just wanted the whole book to feel carefree and bright, so I didn't fuss too much over the "art" of it, I spent most of my thoughts on the negitive parts asking questions like: Is there enough room for an autograph? Does the color work? is the color to saturated, You know all those silly questions you would ask if you were desinging something for someone.

For some non stenciled pages, I picked 3-4 watercolors and used brush strokes to make the page burst with colors, or used a light wash to bring out desing elements.
Not all the pages are showne in this post, I had 22 pages to create on, the perfect amount

Once the pages were painted on, I then had a pile of what I call "recycle art" Art that you don't want to throw away becuase you learned something from it, or you were messing around on some scratch paper and you really like how it turned out... Yep I used them in the book. I cut the art to size and added it to the pages with washi Tape, making it a flap to the page.  A cherished memory happend from my"recyled art" my daughter and I were getting Repunzell's autograph and she didn't want to sign on the flower that I wanted her to autograph on, she was like it's too nice to sign on top of it, that painting deserves to go in a frame, I assured her that it was just a pracitice one, and that she deserves this spot becuase after all my daughter and I love her! It was a special memory that I will cherish.

I chose washi tape that worked with the over all "feel" to match the washi tape to the book I used color theroy to govern my choice, that's all, nothing too fancy about it. If the color worked then it was good to go on.

Next I chose some journaling tags and stickers. I love going to Tuesday Mornings! While I was there in the winter I picked up a pack of cardstock stickers from Basic Grey (one of my all time favorite paper crafting designers) and knew that the stickers would be fun and bright for my addiction, I mean paper craft hoppy. Since I had like 10 sheets of the same stickers I didn't have to feel so stingy with the stickers and used them as accents to the Art Journal Autograph book! The stickers made the whole book look unified when before it looked like an art journal.

What do you think? have you used an art journal as a autograph book before? While we were at Cinderella's Royal Table Jasmin said to me, YOU GOT TO SELL THESE I have never seen anything like this before! So there you go, maybe I will start a new trend, I mean after all mixed media and art journals are so trendy right now, that it makes sense to turn your art journal into an autograph book right?

Spring flowers to make you smile

Still working on some cards that make the maker (me) and the card giver and receiver smile! (you and someone you love)

I loved how stamping and masking really add to the depth of watercolor cards! it's so fun to play with on stamp and make a bunch of watercolor cards with one stamp with different stamping techniques. 

masking and watercolor

water resistance and watercolor


Watercolor fussy cutting 3d technique.

If you would like to see the other posts on how I made these soft beautiful watercolor cards visit this post.

Happy Spring!

If you like any of these cards feel free to contact me and I can get you set up

Penny Black Peony's watercolor stamp

Watercolor Stamping is very addictive! I love this stamp for all the simple reasons why I love watercolor, The art of it! each time I stamped and watercolored the stamp I got something unique every time. If you love to stamp but want a unique look to your cards this stamp set is the one. 

I found this stamp set at my local paper crafting store at Memory Bounds in Ankeny Iowa. I could have waited for a sale but it was calling my name and I had to have the stamp. 

Penny Black has a great line that works really well with "no line" stamping, and the Peony stamp didn't disappoint. 

I used Gansia Tambi light pink and Olive green for the flower, and then for the background, I used Cobalt Blue. I then used some Starry Colors that I mixed into the pink to make the watercolor shimmer.

  

Here's how I did it:

stamp your flower with some water activated ink (I used Tim Holtz worn lipstick and Pealed Paint) You want some ink that will work with the color of the Gansia Tambi watercolor that you will be using. 

then I mixed some Gansia Tambi light pink and Olive green with some starry color for the flower and stem. (I used more starry color than pigment at this point, and lots of water.) the ratio would be 80% water, 4% pigment and 6% Starry color  (Yellow Gold) The idea is to have the brush loaded with water, then with the paint mixture. I used a size 4 round brush for the painting of the stamped image.

To paint I would paint the peony as if I was painting it without the stamp, so I started in the middle and worked out. each pedal I would work from the darkest and then work out to the lighter part. I did this until the whole stamped looked like I painted it.  The key to this is to always have your brush full of the water pigment mixture. 

For the background, I used a wet on wet technique, and just added the cobalt blue water color to just the edge of the flower and worked out with just water to give it a dreamy look. 

I then stamped with Tim Holtz Peeled Paint a Thank you sentiment. mounted it onto a card base. This stamp works well horizontal as well as vertical.

To learn more about watercolor cards take an Online Class with Angela Fehr, (who inspired this card.) Here is a 20% off coupon for the class. Totally worth the time and money!

If you are looking for a good watercolor card class, Craftsy has one that I love and recommend 

Go here for the class from Craftsy that will show you how to do this technique

If you are looking to just learn about watercolor I would head over to CreativeBug and look into Yao Cheng's beginner watercolor class, You will love her class!

Some links are affiliated with my blog, by purchasing from my links you are supporting my blog

Watercolor poppies are the Spring Card of 2017

I LOVE PAINTING and STAMPING flowers cards, so When these poppies from Stampendous came out I had to have them.  I came across them at my local paper craft store at Memory Bounds and snatched them... I started early in the morning to stamp they ( I made about 10 cards) turned out amazing!

The fun was in the creating, and decision making, do I want to do a resist embossing or just a watercolor, or maybe I wanted to layer the flowers? What I absolutely loved about all the different ways to create with this stamp set was that it came with a stencil so I used the stencil as a mask to get some really neat effects! (coming later in a different post.)

Then after the stamping session the next morning I watercolored the cards, I used a small percent of pigment from my Gansai Tambi and Stary colors to color the flowers,

For the watercolor I mixed the starry color White gold in with the Gansai Tambi cobalt watercolor with lots of water, I wanted a light and dreamy feel to the flower. on the background, I also just painted the white gold for some added shimmer.

then I assembled the card with a bit of pop dots, this card turned into one of my favorite cards that I had given to a wife that has her husband in a hospital.


at the bottom I made a happy mistake and used some Washi Tape, I love how the washi tape anchored my card to make such a stunning finishing touched! (washi tape was found at Michaels in the best value recollection washi tape tube.)

On a side note about this stamp set, it came with a stencil for masking, I fussy cut the flowers and leaves out.


My quick Desing tip: I like to use Washi Tape that adds a design Element to the beauty of the card. I knew I didn't want floral WT. I wanted something that complements the card.
  To compliment a floral design add a geometric pattern.

If you are looking to add some watercolor to your card making I would suggest taking this class at Craftsy or Yao Chang's class at Creativebug, both are excellent recourses to help with your watercolor.

Here is a review for the watercolor card class from Craftsy I posted a little bit ago.


Some links contain affiliate links, when you make a purchase through one of these links you are supporting me and my blog.

Bold Pink and Orange cards!

I love analogous colors, they make my heart happy, really and truly. When I need color in my life I go straight to a monochrome or analogous pallet.  I had a wonderful time with this card challenge over at The Card Concept that I made a set of 6 cards, and they turned out awesome!

 I used simple art materials, nothing fancy... Here is what I used.

watercolor paper cut to 4inx5.25in then mounted it onto an A2 white card.
stencils that you don't mind getting gesso on, I was in a triangle type of mood that night so I went with that... I used some triangle background stencils from the Silhouette Design Store that I cut out on cardstock
Gesso
Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolor, I used pink and orange
Kuretake Stary Colors
a mop brush (mine was 12)

This is a very addictive way to paint, so keep that in mind when you start... I could have been doing this for hours!

For the Triangle cards:
You will want to stencil gesso on onto the stencil with a pallet knife. Remove the extra gesso from the stencil and separate the stencil from the paper and then let the gesso dry over night!

Then wake up run to your studio, and look to see if it's dry, and start the watercolor process, I used a red gold starry color to add to the pink and orange Kuretake Gansia Tambi watercolor set that really worked well, I love how the metallics mix with the watercolor, it's like watching paint dance on your pallet.

I used a juicy brush with lots of pigments, and then went in to lift up some of the watercolors from the raised part of the gesso to give it some definition and extra texture.

Then once the watercolor paper is dry again, I mount it onto a card base I have already made, 4.25inx5.5in, folded.

For the circle cards, I used the paint that was already mixed up on my pallet and just made circles like Yao Cheng from Creativebug. I added just water to create some texture and added some bolder colors to the painting, it was just whatever I thought in the moment was a good idea to do I did, it felt free and expressive for me to work this way!.

Then I just mounted the cards to a card base, I did stamp Relax on one of the cards for something different.

This was a simple and beautiful outcome, I didn't want to hide the color, so I used very minimum supplies.

I would love to know what kind of analogous colors are your go too, for me it seems that green and yellow are always favored, or blue and greens.

I also thought of using blues for this one, but I love the oranges and pink with the triangles!

can't you just see this card going to someone that loves horses?

decorative tape adds just the perfect element to this card.

My love affair with Silhouette

I thought I would share my top 5 Silhouette projects I have done and posted about!

Birthday Bouquet

 My Favorite project to do with the Cameo Silhouette is to make flowers, So This post was a favorite of my all around, enjoyable to create, fun to write about, and entertaining to see where it leads me! This project would also work well for any wedding bouquet, just add more flowers. Need an impressive hostess gift that will be cherished, you got it! (frugal alert: I buy vases at my consignment shops for about a dollar!) 

Christmas tree stencil card

I am a mixed media artist by Nature, and this project in one of my favorite projects, I like to use what I have on hand, ( use what you got.)  So I came up with a way to make a bunch of Christmas cards that are all unique in a way, that doesn't break the bank but looks like you really spent a ton of time on. I had a lot of fun playing with watercolor techniques, this project is an open-ended one, use a stencil that you find on the Silhouette Desing Store, resize it to fit your card size, and play with watercolor. You don't have to be a seasoned watercolorist to do this card. Instead of Christmas trees do flower stencil, or a geometric stencil, So many ideas!

Santa washi tape

Crafting with the Cameo Silhouette and Washi Tape is a match made in heaven! Christmas can bring out the best in the crafting world, and although this is all about Santa, can't you see the colors and the theme to change for any type of season, Washi tape adds just enough pizazz to make clean designs look amazing! Check out my other post that used washi tape with the silhouette for a fast card

Silhouette Mint and watercolor pairs nicely together, I love that I can design stamps to fit my size, and my style, as always I wanted the mixed media(watercolor and ink) to stand on its own, add a bit of stamping to go with it and you have a really nice card. I loved how both turned out. This project is great for those color challenges that are popular right now!

A flower candle holder is perfect for so many occasions. I like how easy and elegant this project was to make. It's a beautiful piece that makes me smile when I see it in my house. I like it because it only takes two Design Store files flowers and a candle holder to make, and they are both files that I use on a semi-regular basis, both files are very open ended.








As you can see, I am a crafter that loves to use clean and simple design elements to enhance the project, I love watercolor and mixed media to produce a unique piece that doesn't break the bank, or dip into my family's grocery budget! (see my post about why I use coupons and try to save money.) 

Craftsy's Bogo Event going on this weekend

I love getting things free, and amazing classes are perfect for winter days. Learning and doing things keeps me out of trouble. So I am so excited to get a new class for those long winter months. I thought I would share a couple pair ups with you since Friday Craftsy is starting their BOGO class event. see the bottom of my post for all the details or click here



Here are some of my pair-ups: For Craftsy's BOGO event on all classes!

For a sweet treat:

Celebrate with cookies And The Perfect Cupcake once you know how to make the perfect cupcake and cookie, you will never ever have to buy them in the store, and they are both worth the money, it has saved me money not to buy cupcakes for birthday parties, and cookies for celebrations! both classes are really good choices if you like being in the kitchen. My kids love watching these two classes also and then helping me in the kitchen. Here is my class review for The Perfect Cupcake. Look for my class review for Celebrate with cookies in February!

For healthy fun in the kitchen I recommend:

Make the Most of your Food Processor with Greorge Geary and Guilt-Free Comfort food with Anna Bullett You will be using your food processor a lot in these classes! Both instructors are amazing at what they do, and I was so captivated by the content and knowledge that they taught! These two classes can really help you eat healthier with lots of flavors. With the help of a food processor, it makes short work of eating healthier! These classes also make cooking in the kitchen fun! Here is my blog post for Making the most of your food processor, and Creating Guilt Free Comfort Food with Anna

For watercolor: I have 3 pair ups

Luminous Watercolor and Simple and stunning watercolor techniques If you are thinking about starting watercolor, or need a push to get out of a rut, these classes are perfect, I learned so much from both instructors, It's tricky to get the right color in watercolor, but with a limited pallet you can do so much, Kateri teaches that for you! Mary Murphy does such a great job explaining in-depth about brushes, pigment, styles, and unique ways to stretch yourself as an artist.Both are wonderful for any skill level that wants to take their paintings to the next level. Here is my class review link for Luminous Watercolor and Simple and Stunning Watercolor Techniques. 

Painting florals in Watercolor
Kristy Rice's Getting Started Watercolor Fresh Florals and Anna Mason's step by step Painting Realistic florals. I love painting and creating flowers, and watercolor is the perfect medium to paint florals. These two teachers teach their unique style in painting their florals and pairing them together, learning from them will help you become a better floral watercolorist. Art is a process, and I love each style, taking these two classes helped me with my techniques and skills. My best advice is to keep practicing! This is a class you could practice over and over until you get it right! You can see my two class reviews for Kristy's Class and for Anna's Class both have great youtube channels too!




Angela Fehr's Better Paintings with watercolor Sketching and Watercolor Flower Bouquet with Mary Murphy. I like these two classes together because they teach you about creating the whole painting, it's not technique based, it's looking and painting with the whole picture in mind, from start to finish. They expect you to know your style, or to have a knowledge of how to paint and then take you through from start to finish, this is a very open-ended class that can really jump start your finished painting! Here is my Class review for Angela's Class, Look for my blog post review from Mary soon!


If you love mixed media, I have the perfect pair up!

Painting With Water Based Media with Nina Weiss and Mix it up Mixed Media Step by Step with Lindsay Weirich aka The Frugal Crafter Both instructors are amazing at mixed media, I love both of their styles, I have really enjoyed learning from them. There is a ton of information that you can branch of off with these two classes, They are worth your time and money!

Paper Crafting: With Pigment:
Water Color Cards with Depti Malik and Wild Cards with Catherine Pooler
These two classes go very well together, I find using watercolor and ink can really make your cards look amazing! Both classes offer unique styles to help you use your supplies is ways that are stunning! Both classes have about the same material list or are very open ended to the materials, You can get away with using all inks, or watercolor. Both have great ideas to make your cards look amazing! My best advice for these two classes would be to use what you have, most times one medium or tool can be used in different ways! I have a class review for both: Depti's Watercolor Cards and Catherine Poolers Wild Cards Both classes are excellent resourcesfor paper crafters!

Paper Crafting with paper and tools

Cards with Dimension with Daniel Flanders and Fresh Eyes on your Card Making supplies with Mariam Prantner. Both teachers really love layers, and using supplies in their own exclusive style that you can imitate to make it yours! They both love paper and layering it, and making cards into really neat works of art that you can be proud of! Here is a blog post that was inspired by Daniel's Cards with Dimension, and here is my blog post for Mariam's Fresh Eyes on your Card making supplies