Cherry Blossom Watercolor Tutorial

I’ve been really into watercolors and the versatility of them. However, I have very little skill in drawing, which makes watercoloring difficult…or so I thought. I recently started watching Art Impressions tutorials on Youtube where they use their watercolor stamps with water-based markers to stamp with. Then they go in with a waterbrush and just smudge out the lines to color in the structures. The end result is a gorgeous watercolor scenery that took minimal effort to make. They make it look so easy.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any Art Impressions stamp sets but I did pick up “Birch Land” stamp set from Altenew (one of my favorite brands!!!) on a previous haul. This stamp set features a beautiful tree with branch pieces and different sized arrays of leaves.

The details in this stamp set is beautiful, the lines are super crisp and the stamp set was meant to be layered. I love the sentiments in this stamp set and how I can mix and match words to make a custom sentiment.

I used Tombow Dual Brush pens in the Landscape Palette to stamp the tree, branches and bird house. I also used Distress Inks to stamp the leaves.

And this is what I came up with!

I started with a long strip of water color paper that I had left over from another project.

For the tree and branches I used Tombow N25. Then taking a waterbrush (a wet watercolor brush will work fine too) I went over some of the inked parts on the tree and branches and started pulling some of the ink towards the centre of the tree to color it in. I made sure not to color the entire tree “grey” so that there are some dark spots and some light spots to add additional dimension. This part may need some practice as pulling too much ink inwards could blur the lines and lose detail in the work.

For the birdhouse I used Tombow 899. Again I used the waterbrush to color in the birdhouse.

The blossoms were stamped using a mix of Distress inks in work lipstick, tattered rose and fired brick. Layering these worked really well just keep in mind that if you’re unsure of where to begin, always start with the lightest color first. You can always stamp over it with a darker color later.

The basket was stamped in Distress Ink dried marigold. Then I stamped the same ink pad on an acrylic block and picked up some of the color with a damp brush and started coloring the basket in, leaving a bright/light spot in the middle to give the basket more dimension.

Finally, I finished the wet media part by stamping a sentiment.

To finish everything off, I cut the top white space of water color paper off the top and adhered it onto a grey piece of cardstock. Then I added a silver eyelet at the top and strung some strands of pink ribbon through.

To preserve the watercolor and prevent it from fading and smearing, spray it with a light mist of cheap hairspray to seal everything. Learned this trick from my watercolor instructor when I still took art lessons.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, let me know what you think in the comment box below. And let me know if you tried this or if you have any questions about what I did!

 

Watercolor bridal shower cake with cardstock cake topper

For my lab mate’s bridal shower, I was so inspired by the beautiful cakes I’ve seen on instagram I decided to make one of my own. I decided to use the same colors as the theme of the party, pastel pinks and purples.

Using a rich french meringue buttercream and several layers of my favorite white cake recipe, the cake was a hit!

I cut a cake topper using my silhouette cameo and silhouette studio and attached long wooden foodsafe skewers to insert into the cake.

I have another bridal shower coming up soon and I need some good ideas on decorating so please comment below if you have any!

 

 

Hack: Prevent wet paper from wrinkling when dry using a sticky mat

As a lover of multiple forms of media when I do my crafting, I thoroughly enjoy using Tim Holtz’s distress mediums, adding water, watching the inks react. I also enjoy water coloring on my cards and projects. But the worst thing is when your wet media wrinkles the paper you’re working on.

Here’s another trick I discovered to prevent your paper from wrinkling.

1. Obtain a Silhouette Cameo, Cricut or Sizzix adhesive cutting mat.

1. Use either watercolour paper or multimedia paper. These can be purchased from any art store.
   
   Here is an example of a watercolor pad. I recommend getting the ones without the coil binding or getting the ones with the easy to rip little dotted cut marks on the inside. I forget what those are called.
2. Apply your watercolor paper to the sticky mat. Make sure the edges are tacked down. If your mat is old, use a little temporary double sided adhesive on the underside of your paper to stick down the edges. Make sure ALL THE EDGES have adhered to the mat otherwise you’ll get wrinkles. The body of the paper does not need to be sticking to the mat so don’t worry if you have an older mat.
3. Apply wet media. Inks, paints, water, etc.
4. Let dry completely.
5. Carefully remove the sheet from the sticky mat.

Troubleshooting:

1. The paper wrinkled when I applied wet media.
   Solution: This is normal, the paper will wrinkle as it absorbs the liquid and expands. Just let it dry, it will contract and shrink back to be flat again just as long as you do not remove the paper from the mat before it fully dries.
2. The paper is still wrinkly even though I let it dry completely on the mat.
   Solution: Always ensure the edges of the paper are all completely adhered to the mat. Check the paper you’re using. Watercolor paper is a heavier weight paper, unlike most cardstocks that don’t work very well with wet media even if you use any variety of methods to prevent wrinkling. The paper just wasn’t designed for media work like watercolor artist paper is.
   Solution: Try ironing it with a cloth between the paper and the iron to prevent burning.

Post a comment below if you have any questions or need help with this method!