How-to Video | Floral Watercolor Card Inspired by Jennifer McGuire’s Photo + Giveaway

Hello, crafty friends. I’m excited to tell you that I’m hosting the August 2019 Inspiration Challenge on the Altenew blog this month. My inspiration came from a photo of a flower that Jennifer McGuire shared on her Instagram Story last month.

I just loved the flower arrangement on her plant pot and every color on her photo so I asked her to send me the photo so I can use it for my inspiration. Make sure to watch my video tutorial to see the full photo.

Video Tutorial

I made a video tutorial to show you how to create a one layer watercolor card from start to finish. You can watch it above or in HD on YouTube.

This video includes:

• Techniques: watercoloring, masking, watercolor wash, dotting
• Why I chose a specific supply – stamps, paper, and etc.
• How I decide my card design and change it along the way
• How I proceed with my project when I make a mistake
• How to add interest and depth to my watercolor images
• My craft desk after my project is done – I hope you can relate to my messy desk.
• And more!

To create my own floral arrangement, I mixed several images from some of my favorite Altenew stamp sets.

• Flowers: Adore You, Build-A-Flower: Coral Charm, and Beautiful Day
• Plant pot: an oval vase image from the Versatile Vases Stamp Set
• Sentiment: Beautiful Day Stamp Set
• Message inside the card: Beautiful Inside Stamp Set

I started by stamping a large floral image from the Adore You Stamp Set with Permanent Black Ink which is waterproof on the bottom of my A2 size Arches cold press watercolor paper.

Then I masked off the flower with a full adhesive post-it note and stamped the additional flowers and leaves, making sure that the main flower image appeared the foreground and the rest images stamped partially behind the flower. Lastly, I stamped the plant pot after masking off the leaves and small flowers.

After stamping, I watercolored my images using the Altenew Watercolor 36 Pan Set and #3 watercolor paintbrush. My go-to paintbrush size is #3 as it’s easy to add details while allowing me to cover the quite large areas as well. I think #3 or #4 round paintbrush should be good enough for painting images when you make an A2 size card project.

I coated a thin layer of light pigment first and applied darker colors toward the bottom of each petal and the areas where two petals meet together to indicate the shading areas.

I worked on small areas at a time and painted slowly with light pressure on my hand. To create a gradient look of the color, it’s important to rinse off your paintbrush with clean water and wipe off the excess paint using a towel in between before you pull out the color. I used a heat tool between applications to speed up the drying time.

As a finishing touch, I applied a thin layer of Fresh Lemon on the entire flowers using a watercolor glazing technique.  I lightly colored my background using a watercolor wash technique to set my scene. I loaded lots of water on my watercolor paintbrush as I didn’t want to create intense colors.

I added some tiny dots on my flowers/leaves/plant pot to add extra dimension and depth to my images. I also added tiny dots & fine lines on the center of each flower using a white gel pen and black pen to add interest.

FYI, here is the list of paint colors I used for my watercoloring:

• Flowers: Puffy Heart, Purple Wine, Coral Berry, Rubellite, Fresh Lemon
• Leaves: Bamboo, Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades, Evergreen
• Plant pot: Lagoon, Emerald, Ocean Waves, Paper Bag
• Background: Paper Bag, Industrial Diamond

After my coloring was done, I stamped the sentiment from the Beautiful Day Stamp Set on the right bottom side of my card front with my favorite black ink which is Obsidian Pigment Ink.

Actually, I had to start over my watercolor card as I didn’t like my first attempt at all. I’m still not sure if I like the final result of my card. I have mixed feelings about my watercoloring. Let me know what you think. My husband loved my card so much which is rare. Haha!

It’s a mystery that I have a different result every time I create a watercolor card even though I use the same technique. Sometimes it turns out beautifully and sometimes not. Leave a comment below if you can relate to this.

The beauty of my one layer watercolor card is an illusion of depth created by the masking technique. If you are not good at masking technique, I highly recommend that you test out your placement of each image by stamping the images on a A2 size scratch paper. That way you’ll know which image you should stamp first to place it in the foreground.

This is it for today! I hope my watercolor card inspired you to play along with this month’s challenge. There are 4 $30 Altenew gift certificates up for grabs. Visit the Altenew blog HERE for more details.

$15 Altenew Gift Certificate Giveaway 

I also have TWO $15 Altenew gift certificates to give away. Leave a comment below, telling me what makes you happy at the moment. I will announce two lucky winners on 8/8/2019.

This is it for today. Thank you so much for stopping by today. Happy crafting!

Supplies

I have listed the supplies I used below. I participate in several affiliate programs including Altenew(AN), Simon Says Stamp(SSS), and Ellen Hutson(EH). It means I get a small commission at no additional cost to you when products are purchased through links I share here. Thank you for your support.

Altenew Adore You Stamp SetShop at: SSS | AN | EH	Altenew Versatile Vases Stamp SetShop at: SSS | AN	Altenew Beautiful Day Stamp SetShop at: SSS | AN | EH	Altenew Build-A-Flower Coral CharmShop at: SSS | AN | EH	Altenew Beautiful Inside Stamp SetShop at: SSS | AN | EH
Altenew Watercolor 36 Pan SetShop at: SSS | AN	Altenew Permanent Black InkShop at: SSS | AN | EH	Altenew Obsidian Pigment InkShop at: SSS | AN	Arches Cold Pressed Watercolor PadShop at: SSS | AZ | EH
Tim Holtz Tonic Paper TrimmerShop at: SSS | AZ | EH	Wagner Embossing Heat ToolShop at: SSS | HA | EH	Be Creative Double Sided TapeShop at: SSS | EH	3M Post It NotesShop at: SSS | AZ
Altenew Watercolor Palette – MediumShop at: SSS | AN	Altenew Stamping MatShop at: AN	Original MISTI Stamping Tool Shop at: SSS | HA | AN | AZ | EH	Uni-Ball White Gel PenShop at: SSS | PS | EH