Free As A Bird Card using Watercolor Pencils ~ Rick Adkins

Hello and welcome to my blog; today I am going to share with you a fun card using the Free as A Bird Stamp Set, and some tips & tricks on using Stampin’ Up!’s Watercolor Pencils. I have been playing with watercolor pencils for a long time and had a love hate relationship with them until Stampin’ Up! ®™ came out with their own a couple years ago. Now I am in hog heaven using them. Here is a look at the card I made today.

Free As A Bird Stamp Set, Watercolor Pencils, Tasteful Texture 3d embossing Folder, Rick Adkins, Stampin' Up!

The Birds in the Free as A Bird Stamp Set are so cute and are just begging to be colored with your watercolor pencils. Do not be afraid just go for it. Once you follow a few simple tips & tricks I have for you today you will be able to send these cute little birds to all your friends because they deserve it.

Our Watercolor Pencils now come in two sets, of high-quality, smooth color pencils; that are perfect for watercoloring any stamped image. One thing that will help you to achieve a great look with your pencils is the type of paper you use. You can use Whisper White cardstock just like I did today, but you must treat it very nicely. Meaning you cannot use an aqua painter on plain cardstock. You can however use a Blender Pen for best results. This is my preferred method for moistening the pigment and moving it around to fill in my line art image. Aqua Painters or any other type of water brush holds and release way too much water for the smooth Whisper White cardstock surface.

s A Bird Stamp Set, Watercolor Pencils, Tasteful Texture 3d embossing Folder, Rick Adkins, Stampin' Up!

Now if I do use a aqua painter or want to use more water to more the pigment around for a nice wash type background I pull out my shimmery white cardstock or watercolor paper for this. But I did not need that today, so I just stuck with the blender pen and the plain whisper white cardstock.

Another thing you need to consider is the type of ink you are using. If you are using a die-based ink like I did today you must sit the cardstock aside for awhile to completely dry or heat set with a heat tool. I choice to just sit it aside and let the ink dry and soak into the cardstock. Stazon which is the preferred ink for watercoloring is not one of my favorite inks, so I am fine with letting the other sit and dry the card my take a little longer, but I am happy to wait.

My next tip and this one is the most important one is how and where you hold your pencil. Yes, there are certain places to hold your watercolor pencil or any pencil in art to achieve the correct look. Watercolor pencils are all about the amount of pigment you put down on the paper. You may be wondering why I put this here. Well it’s because the closer to the end of the pencil you are holding in your hand the more pigment you are putting down on the cardstock. So, if you want a dark area of color come closer to the point of the pencil and color. Which means the for lighter and mid-range color you need to come back further from the tip of the pencil. A good rule of thumbs is to hold the watercolor pencil in the middle area of the pencil for a medium amount of pigment to be placed on the cardstock. And for lighter areas you want to hold the pencil closest to the end of the pencil as you will see in the video.

Once I have the entire image colored, I will come back with my blender pen and wet the pigment and get it to move around the cardstock blending the darks mediums and lights together. This is how I achieved the gradient look on my images today.

Video Tutorial:

I hope that you find these little tips and tricks helpful as you explore watercolor pencils and stamping. If you need any of the supplies, you have seen today you can pick them up in my online store by clicking on the item in the shopping list below.

Happy Stampin'

Rick Adkins

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