Watercoloring Modern Anemones and Peonies with Dawn

Hello! Today I've got a pair of cards to share with you featuring our newly released Modern Anemones and Modern Peonies stamp sets.

The "Modern" florals series is perfect for all kinds of mediums - markers, watercolors, colored pencils - but today I wanted to focus on watercolor. Of course!

Watch above or watch in HD at YouTube

I wanted to share a comparison of the same painting technique on hot pressed and cold pressed watercolor paper. Hot pressed watercolor paper has a very smooth texture while cold pressed has more texture. (there is also rough watercolor paper - which is exactly as it sounds - but we are just looking at hot and cold today)

First up is the hot pressed paper. I chose to stamp out several of my images onto Fabriano Artistico Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen. I like this color because most colors will cover it and virtually make it "disappear". I chose to paint my anemones white, but if you were painting yours a color, like say red, you could stamp in a matching ink color if you wanted. Because we are stamping on artist grade watercolor paper, the ink will not reactivate and lift like we are used to Distress Inks behaving. This is because watercolor paper is cotton not pulp, so the ink stains the paper and remain pretty stable.

Once all of my watercoloring was dry, I used the companion dies to die cut out the images. Tip: die cut all of painted pieces, even if you aren't 100% happy with them. Chances are you'll be able to tuck them in to fill out your arrangement and hide the areas you're not as happy with.

You can see in the close ups below that the hot pressed paper allows us to easily add detail if we want and has a very smooth finish, while the cold pressed has a more textured finish. While either result can be achieved on both papers - I just find it easier to achieve the smooth detailed results on hot pressed and easier to achieve more fluid and loose results on the cold pressed.

Cold pressed paper stays wet longer thanks to the valleys of the texture, which makes it perfect for wet-in-wet painting as you have more time to work before your paper starts to dry. This allows me to let the water do most of the work for me and I don't have to "fuss" with it as much.

For the second card, I did some masking and stamped out a floral cluster using images from Modern Anemones, Modern Peonies and added a few leaves from Modern Petunias.

Once it was dry I hand trimmed the entire cluster and adhered it over two die cut circles. The edge that was hanging off, I trimmed and adhered to the other side of the card. I used a partial sentiment from the Strictly Sentiments 4 stamp set for both cards along with a sprinkling of sequins.

I hope you've had a great week so far, and are looking forward to the weekend...which is almost here!

Featured Supplies

For your convenience, here is a list of the featured supplies used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase. Please note: this list may contain some affiliate links.

Wplus9 Modern Peonies Wplus9 Modern Peonies Die Wplus9 Modern Anemones Wplus9 Modern Anemones Die Modern Petunias 4x6" Clear Stamp Set Wplus9 Premium Oatmeal Cardstock Nautical Navy Cardstock Simon Says Stamp STITCHED CIRCLES Wafer Dies sssd111456 In Stitches Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad ANTIQUE LINEN Ranger TIM19497 Fabriano Artistico Watercolor Block 5x7" Arches HOT PRESS WATERCOLOR PAD 10x14 inches 013217 Arches COLD PRESS WATERCOLOR PAD 9x12 inches 012852 Mijello PERFECT COLOR WATERCOLOR PALETTE 055651* Da Vinci Kolinsky Sable Round #5 Robert Simmons Sapphire Watercolor Brush Round 0 Princeton Neptune Brush - #1 Script Ranger Studio Paint ARTIST BRUSHES Brush BRU40842 Grumbacher Artists' Watercolor - Sap Green Grumbacher Ultramarine Blue Watercolor M. Graham Watercolors - Cerulean Blue Deep Winsor & Newton Quinacridone Gold Watercolor Daniel Smith Watercolor - Quinacridone Magenta Da Vinci Artists' Watercolors Rose Red Deep Grumbacher Alizarin Crimson Watercolor M. Graham Watercolors - Cadmium Red Deep M. Graham Watercolor - Cobalt Violet Simon Says Cling Stamps TINY DOTS AND HEARTS SSS101647 STAMPtember Simon Says Stamp VELLUM SSSVEL12 STAMPtember EK Success POWDER TOOL Applicator 54-04002 Tsukineko Versamark EMBOSS INK PAD Watermark VM-001 Simon Says Stamp EMBOSSING POWDER GOLD Ultrafine Fine Detail GoldEP4 Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White 660425 3M Scotch DOUBLE-SIDED FOAM TAPE Permanent Pretty Pink Posh 4MM ONYX Cupped Sequins Quilled Creations PRECISION TIP Empty Applicator Bottle 317 Ranger .5 Oz. MINI MULTI MEDIUM MATTE Glue Adhesive Paint INK41511

InLinkz.com