May 2013: Watercolor Washes

Are you ready for a new May Technique Challenge? It is going to be Watercolor Washes. You will need to include an Asian image or word somewhere on your card.

You can combine your May Technique Challenge with one of the weekly Layout Challenges going on this month if you wish. Have you ever done watercolor wash before? Don’t think you have? You might surprise yourself with this one.

I remember when I was learning how to stamp and color (being a newbie at that time) my friends taught me to take the ink pad, squash the lid to get a little ink on the inside of the lid, take a waterpen (either one of those you fill with water that looks like a fountain pen but with a brush on the end or a blender pen) and pick up the ink with the water and spread it out on my image to color it. Have you done that? If so, then you’re already half-way there!!

To do watercolor wash, you just put a few drops of your ink on a CD or other flat surface or small tray, add a little water to thin it out, and then brush or “wash” it onto your card stock. Let the card stock dry, stamp your image(s) and you are ready to make the card. Easy Peasy!

You can use watercolors, reinkers, or even food coloring from your kitchen. For that matter, you can even play with things like Twinkling H2O’s, or your liquid Pearl-X – just add water!!

Here are some links to give you ideas for your cards:

Watercolor Wash For Beginners – How To Paint a Flat Wash – YouTube
How to Paint a Watercolor Wash | eHow.com
Watercolor Sky For Beginners – How To Paint a Variegated Wash – YouTube

And here is a link supplied by our very own OSA member and Vendor Lindsay:

Watercolor Wash 3 Ways!-1/1 – YouTube

Do you have some interesting colors of fingernail polish? You can make a background with that as well. Here is a video of a lady doing her fingernails using a styrofoam cup, her fingernail polish, and water but if you used a flatter container, you could dip your card stock onto the water instead of doing your fingernails. Imagine the pattern you could make on paper! Here’s that link:

Devils & Angel Water Marble Nail Art Tutorial – YouTube

BUT! That’s not all!! The sites listed above show you how to color your background on your paper. We are going to take it up a notch as one cooking expert says. Don’t want to do the entire background with a wash? Then here are some links for filling in simple outlines of flowers to give that oh-so-beautiful look to it:

Floating Reinker Watercolor Technique – YouTube
Watercolor Rose Tutorial – YouTube

Here are the cards from those who participated in this month’s Technique Challenge: