If you’ve been playing or following along at Just Add Ink for a while now, you would be aware that each week there is a new challenge posted.  Well this week there’s a fun twist on our regular challenge, and I’m sure you’re going to love it!

Before I get into the details of the challenge and my own entry, here’s a little how-to on the whole blog hop scenario in case you’re as new to this as I am….!

There are ten stops on the hop – all of the Design Team members and the Just Add Ink site itself – and it’s arranged in a loop, so it doesn’t matter where you start, just follow the links at the end of each post so that you get around the whole lot.

Chances are you’ve come here from Amanda’s blog or perhaps you’ve just popped in on the off chance that there’s something new to see.

Either way, it’s great to have you here

You’re going to want to make sure you see everything, as at each stop there is a technique tutorial!  The challenge from Just Add Ink this week is to incorporate a technique from one of the tutorials into your challenge entry!

I told you this was going to be fun!

Alrighty, let’s get started shall we…?!

My tutorial is all about a technique that I just love and never get tired of…

Watercolouring

The cast of characters

First stamp your image using Staz On ink onto water colour paper

I like to use the Classic ink with an Aquapainter for watercolouring, so to get my 'palette', I squish the lid of my ink pads a bit.....

...and some of the ink is transferred to the inside lid of my inkpad, from where it can be picked up with an Aquapainter

Because you only want a very light covering of ink for the first layer, pick up the ink from the edges of the colour "puddle" with your Aquapainter and make sure it is quite diluted

This is the first layer of colour - very light. It's important to ensure that each section is dry before moving onto the next section so that the colours don't bleed together

For each subsequent layer of colour, start with a more concentrated line of ink towards one edge of the image (see the centre of the large flower on the left), making sure to work in small areas at a time and only once the first layer is completely dry. For this image I am imagining that there is a light source coming from the right, hence my shadows will be towards the left of the image

Remove the excess colour from your Aquapainter by brushing it on your scrap paper

Return to where you painted the darker strip of colour and blend it outwards in a circular motion so that there are no hard lines. This is what your image will look like when each section has a second layer of colour

Continue with a third layer of the same colours, each time using more ink and upping the saturation of the colours

Now I have chosen slightly darker colours and gone over the same areas again in the same way as before - paint a strip of colour towards the left of the image, get rid of the excess colour from the Aquapainter and blend outwards with a circular motion. This is the fourth layer of colour (gotta love watercolour paper!)

This is the fifth layer of colour - darker again. The centre of the flowers now have three layers of More Mustard, one of Close to Cocoa and one of Chocolate Chip. The flower pot has three layers of More Mustard, one of Really Rust and one of Chocolate Chip

I also like to colour the background of my watercoloured images to add more depth and realism to the picture, so making sure that your previous colouring is completely dry, let’s move onto the background….

In the same way as we did with the stamped image colouring, the background also starts with a very light layer of colour

For the second and subsequent layers of background colour, start with a stronger line of colour at the edge of the image, remove the excess colour from the Aquapainter and blend out in a circular motion - same as before

When you've finished colouring your image, this is what you'll have....

...also this...

..but the most exciting thing you will have is this!

Layer upon layer of ink upon the very absorbant and forgiving watercolour paper takes you from this to this!

Here’s a quick frame by frame to compare each step in the process….

For the final card, I wanted to keep to a fairly simple layout, so as to keep the focus on the watercoloured image and not end up with anything too busy…

I used my brand new Tiny Tags set with the matching Jewelry Tag Punch for my little greeting, but as it is so tiny, I felt that attaching it with a standard brad would be a bit overpowering, so I made my own, slightly smaller one…

Using the smaller of the two Crop-a-dile hole punches, I punched out a tiny bit of Chocolate Chip cardstock and stuck it in place using Tombow Mono Adhesive.  Then I squeezed a drop of Crystal Effects onto it to make it shiny and brad-like.

It’s actually still quite cloudy and not quite dry here (in fact not dry at all!) as I was too impatient to wait to take the photo’s and get started on my tutorial.

Should you  have a go at making your own brads, you will notice that they do end up a nice shiny version of the colour of the cardstock underneath, as opposed to the murky, cloudy whitish/brown number that you can see above

So there you have it, my contribution to what is a bumper week of tutorials!

Don’t forget once you’ve finished the hop, your challenge is to choose one of the tutorials, make a project using it as your entry and link it up over at Just Add Ink.

I’ve seen a few of the projects already and my guess is you won’t be able to stop at just one…!

To continue on the tour, just click the image below and keep on truckin’!  Next up is Delys…

Enjoy!

“Just Add Ink Watercolouring Tutorial”
Stamps: A Flower for All Seasons, Tiny Tags
Paper: Kraft, Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Patterns DSP – Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip, Watercolour Paper
Ink: Staz On Jet Black, Summer Sun, More Mustard, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Old Olive, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White (sponged around edge of Kraft)
Accessories: Aquapainter, Jewelry Tag Punch, Crop-a-dile, Crystal Effects, Stampin’ Dimensionals

As promised yesterday, here is the next card in the series of watercoloured images from A Flower for All Seasons.

This one I gave to my cousin who ended up in hospital for a week or so a little while back.

Incidentally, this is a stamp set that I won as an award at convention, and I’m not entirely sure I would have got it had that not been the case, but I’m really glad to have it now.

It really is one of the sweetest stamp sets, and SO much fun to colour in.  No doubt it would have hit my wishlist as soon as I saw what others could do with it, as is generally the case with, well, pretty much any stamp set you could care to mention…!

Which set(s) did you not love on sight but can’t get by without now…?

“Sophie Get Well Card”
Stamps: A Flower for All Seasons, Trendy Trees (greeting)
Paper: Cameo Coral, So Saffron, Old Olive, Watercolour Paper, Washington Apple DSP
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, another large variety of colours that I can’t honestly recall, but inclusive of So Saffron, Summer Sun, Cameo Coral,  More Mustard, Really Rust, Close to Cocoa, Certainly Celery and Old Olive… I think!
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Aquapainter, Flower Fusion, So Saffron brad, Very Vanilla wide grosgrain, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Watercolouring in front of the TV is right up there amongst my very favourite ways to pass the time.

And the time does pass, as both activities require a certain level of attention, particularly if I want to stay inside the lines – which generally I do – or the program in question has any tricky story lines to follow.  So colouring just a few images has been known to take up the entire duration of a movie at times…

A couple of months back I found myself in front of Sweet Home Alabama, inking up A Flower for All Seasons for the very first time.  While the movie itself didn’t require a whole bunch of brain power, there was eye candy a-plenty in the form of Mc Dreamy and that sweet blue-eyed southern boy, so this turned out to be one of those times where there wasn’t a heck of a lot to show for my time once the credits started rolling…

I did manage to have stamped and coloured all four images, with no particular purpose in mind, but I have since found a purpose for two of them.

The other two images, well I have absolutely no idea where they got to.  Most likely pounced upon by one or both of my children and squirreled away in some random bag or box in their toy area.

Do anybody else’s kids do this?  Bower birds mine, both of them.

Aaaaaanyway, the first image is my favourite of the four – the sweet sunflower – and I turned it into this card for my dear friend and Godmother of my littlest  (*waving* Deen!)

One of the best ever tips I have seen for watercolouring is to go around the outside of the stamped image with Going Grey ink on your Aquapainter.  It adds a shadowy effect and gives the picture a real 3D quality.

You can make out the slightest shadow in the close up picture just above….

Coming up tomorrow, the second in the series, and if I ever find the other two images, I’ll show you those at some stage too….!

So what do you most like to combine with your stamping, or are you the head down, bum up variety of stamper that just concentrates on the task at hand….?!

“Watercoloured Sunflower for Deena”
Stamps: A Flower for All Seasons, Basic Phrases
Paper: Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip, Watercolour Paper, Haiku DSP
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Chocolate Chip, a large variety of colours that I can’t honestly recall, but inclusive of So Saffron, More Mustard, Really Rust, Summer Sun, Close to Cocoa, Certainly Celery, Old Olive and Real Red… I think!
Accessories: Eyelet Border Punch, 1-3/8″ Square Punch, Old Olive wide grosgrain, Aquapainter, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Stampin’ Sponges