Watercolored Peace & Joy Card

 Due to the overwhelming response to my first quick watercolored card and requests for how to, I created a second very quick card. Didn’t turn out quite as good as first… but I like the colors! The hardest part on the first card was creating a frame that would jazz up the card to make it Christmas card worthy! The hardest part on the second card was remembering how to video and then relearning how to splice the film into a watchable video. I give myself a B on the card, A- on the frame, a C on the video (obviously need to center the video correctly), and B+ on the video itself. (I’m an easy grader 😏😉).

I do apologize for the video imperfections… I quickly had set the camera up and thought I had it aligned. But hopefully you can see the steps. I also want to apologize for a little hand shaking… think I have a slight case of essential tremors.

Here’s my first card:

I created the frame by painting paper using the colors in the painting and then add paint spatters and some copper Nuvo flakes. I used a Stamperia sentiment on the bottom.

Here’s my second card:

This time I used cheap Holographic silver paper to frame the card and a sentiment from Unity’s December’s Sentiment Kit, Cherished Holly kit. I clear embossed the Gina K stamped sentiment onto shiny white paper and fussy cut it and a silver background to adhere it to.

So, some points on process, I used watercolor paper and my Schminke watercolors. I have a towel underneath I can use to wipe color off brushes, dry brushes off, catch splatter… learned this in a class. I always have 2 containers of water, 1 for clean water and the other to clean the brush off. I also always have paper towels on hand and a dryer or heat gun. A larger brush is useful for adding the wash of color over entire paper, and for dropping background colors into the wet “canvas”. Smaller brushes better for details. Always use duller, cooler colors in the background (check color wheel for cooler colors) and brighter colors for foreground. Also pick a good white opaque gouache, like Winsor & Newton, for highlights, snow and spatter. Remember to dry off the paper between each layer of color. And, yes, you can do repeated washes. I usually stick to 3-5 colors when painting… so in the case of the first card I used an orange, and orange red, a reddish brown and a brown. On the second card I used a blue, a deep green and a bit of gray. And I would liberally mix the colors together to get various shades between the colors. 

Finally, you need to keep a couple thoughts in mind, a focal point should be the crispest part and be strategically placed… that is, the most detailed, most contrasting colors (deepest, brightest, and lightest), and be located according to the Rule of Thirds. Although not entirely successful, in each case, I tried to make the largest tree the focus… Good things to consider, but don’t go nuts about it… it is just a card!

So, check out the video below. It will be on YouTube, so you can watch a bigger screen there, if you wish, by clicking on the word,”YouTube”.

Hope this was a helpful explanation. I will be making more of these as I can do them quickly, and my supplies are all over waiting for my craft room to be pulled together. I’ve been undergoing renovations throughout my entire house, so it’s been impossible to do much crafting. 

Thanks for stopping by - let me know if you have any questions! Thanks and happy crafting!