Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) – Stunningly Simple Watercolor Techniques

As a part of Level 3 of the Altenew Educator Certification Program I’m challenging myself to try to fine tune some skills and try working with mediums that I’m not the most comfortable. I typically lean towards the standard ink and stamps, so I’m focusing on creating with watercolours and alcohol markers. This card leverages some techniques from Altenew’s Stunningly Simple Watercolor Techniques class.

The technique I’m using for this card is an Ombre watercolour. Sounds simple, right? It’s a little bit trickier than I expected. Getting the colour to truly have an ombre effect, while simple in theory can be a bit challenging. I found the key to be adding multiple layers of paint and stopping a little bit further up each time. I wanted a subtle background for an elegant sympathy card for my cousin’s husband who recently lost his father.

I started off by using Altenew’s Dusk Crisp Dye Ink and smooshing it onto Altenew’s Medium Palette. Then I took a large flat paint brush, saturated with water and then picked up some of the ink. Then I washed the colour across a panel of Canson XL watercolor paper and added a little more water a bit at a time at I headed towards the bottom of the page.

I used my WOW Dual Speed Heat tool on low, to help speed up the drying of my panel. Then I repeated the process, adding a bit more ink and adding water as I head down the page. I stopped adding colour a little bit shorter with each pass until the colour was what I was looking for in terms of saturation of colour.

 

Again, I used my heat tool to speed up the drying process. Then I took the largest flower image from Altenew’s Wildflower Garden stamp set and Altenew’s Obsidian Pigment Ink and stamped the image on the panel. Since this is watercolor paper, I used my MISTI stamping tool so that I could repeat stamping the image. Watercolor paper is textured so it’s often times difficult to get a smooth image on the first pass. I ended up stamping each of my images about 3 times to ensure I got solid coverage.

Then I took one of the smaller images and stamped it next to the first image. I wanted to get a little bit of detail to my panel, so I grabbed Pinkfresh Studio’s Diagonal Stitched Rectangle Die and used the smaller rectangle to cut down my watercolor panel.

For the sentiment, I used Brutus Monroe’s Gilded Embossing Powder and Tsukineko’s Versamark Ink to heat emboss “with Deepest Sympathy” on a piece of Simon Says Stamp Vellum.

I adhered the sentiment strip to the lower portion of the watercolor panel as I didn’t want to take away from the main image. Then I used the larger die from the Pinkfresh Studio’s Diagonal Stitched Rectangle Die and cut down a piece of Simon Says Stamp’s Cardstock in Black.  Then I adhered the watercolor panel to the black cardstock panel and then adhered everything to an A2 sized cardbase made of Neenah Solar White Cardstock.

Is this the most complex technique? Nope. However it does add a really nice base of colour to a simple, yet elegant sympathy card.

Altenew Stamps:

– Wildflower Garden

Altenew Crisp Dye Inks:

– Dusk

Other Inks:

– Altenew Obsidian Pigment Ink

– Tsukineko’s Versamark Ink

Other Supplies:

– Pinkfresh Studio’s Diagonal Stitched Rectangle Die

– Neenah Solar White cardstock (SSS)

– Simon Says Stamp’s Cardstock – Black

-Canson XL Watercolor Paper

–Simon Says Stamp Vellum

– Brutus Monroe’s Gilded Embossing Powder

– Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue (SSS)

–Simon Says Stamp Big Momma Foam Tape (SSS)

Tools:

– Crystal Katana Jewel Picker (SSS)

– My Sweet Petunia’s MISTI Stamping Tool (SSS)

– Tim Holtz Mini Comfort Trimmer (SSS)

– Simon Says Stamp’s Grid Transparency (SSS)

– WOW Dual Speed Heat Tool (SSS)

–Spellbinders Platinum 6 Die Cutting Machine

– Anti-Static Powder Bag

–Tom Holtz Tonic Glass Media Mat

– Therm-O-Web Purple Tape

– Altenew Watercolor Palette – Medium

– Royal & Langnickel Watercolor Brushes

 

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