Watercolor Journey #1: Daniel Smith Watercolor

Last Summer, I got the June 2017 Simon Says card kit called Blissful. The kit contained the following items:

• Simon Says “Floral Bliss” clear stamp
• Daniel Smith Watercolor Palette (contained 4 drops of paint)
• Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink pad in the color Worn Lipstick
• 12 double-side 6×6 inch sheets of pattern paper from the Echo Park’s Wedding Bliss collection
• Simon Says Stamp Barely Beige ink pad
• 1 sheet of Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock
• 3 sheets of Simon Says Stamp cardstock
• 1 Metallic Ivory Envelope

I was thrilled to get this card kit as I have been very interested in watercoloring and I had started to collect other watercoloring mediums. So, I gave myself a challenge: use the stamp and items that came with the kit to create 6 different watercolor card creations using the following mediums:

• Daniel Smith Watercolor Palette (came with the kit)
• Zig Clean Color Markers
• Faber-Castell Gelatos
• Derwent Inktense color pencils
• Tim Holtz distress ink cubes
• Kuretake Gansai Tambi

In this post, I’ll be covering the first watercoloring medium that I used which is the Daniel Smith Watercolor Palette that came with the kit. This medium was new to me. The kit came with a little piece of cardstock that had four drops of the Daniel Smith Watercolor medium containing colors: Sap Green, Ultramarine Blue, Quinacridone Gold, and Quinacridone Rose.

To start my watercolor piece, I decided I wanted to try the “no line coloring” technique. For this technique, you can use a very light ink that’s barely visible and it gets covered by your coloring. I used the Simon Says Stamp (SSS) Barely Beige ink pad that came with the kit. Here are the steps I took to create my watercolor piece:

1. Using my MISTI tool (stamp positioning tool which I cannot live without!) stamped the image from the “Floral Bliss” stamp set twice (on two edges) using the SSS Barely Beige ink onto a 5.5″x4.24 piece of watercolor cardstock.
2. Using a round 2 watercoloring brush (which I wetted with a cup of water that I had on the side), activated the paint and started applying color to the image using the wet on dry technique (meaning my watercolor paper was dried as I applied the wet paint).
3. I applied the watercolor paint first in the areas of the image that I wanted to be the darkest for interest and not make the image seem flat (this is a personal preference and how I like to color!). Also, I applied the paint in layers to build the color intensity and contrast. I did about 2-3 layers of color application on each section of the image.

TIPS: Avoid painting sections next to each other right away. Color will move anywhere that water is applied. Example: I painted my pink flowers first. While I waited for those to dry, I started coloring the tiny yellow flowers. I had to wait for the pink flowers to dry to color the green leaves. If I had started coloring the leaves right away (while the pink flowers were still wet), then some of the pink will move towards the green leaves section.

Below is the finished painting:

Overall thoughts: I am going to be honest with you, I almost gave up on this piece. At first I just though “oh this just is looking terrible!” But I kept going and promised myself I will finish this. And I am so glad I did!!! The more I worked on it, the better it looked. It just took some time to build the colors. I learned that with watercolor it looks one way when you put down the paint and completely different when it dries. Also, the Simons Says Stamp Barely Beige ink is fantastic for this technique. The ink would absorb the color you would put on top, giving you those very nice line details and saving you from having to draw them yourself. Lastly, I really enjoyed working with the Daniel Smith Watercolor Palette. The colors were easy to apply and build up. I am definitely getting a set of these!

Of course I had to turn this watercolor masterpiece into a card :)! So I used a border stitch die on the corner of the watercolor piece and glued it on to a layer of black cardstock which had the same border design. I took some of the pattern paper that came with the kit and taped it onto a 5.5×4.25″ card base. Then added the watercolor piece on top. For the sentiment, I stamped with Versamark ink one of the sentiments that came with the kit and white heat embossed it. Below is the finished card.

My final remark for this post is not to give up! Keep trying… keep coloring! You might surprise yourself! The more you practice the better you get and you will figure out what works for you. More importantly, just have fun!

Thanks,

Yami