Watercoloured Die-cuts Tutorial
Put aside those pencils – Marie’s brushing up on her paints for this colouring workshop
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If you have not used watercolours before, but always wanted to have a go, these pretty cards show you how to combine watercolour backgrounds with your die-cuts. You can use any of your dies for this technique and use them to cut uniquely-coloured embellishments or to lay over background pieces.
For the watercolouring I would advise using a good quality watercolour card – the one I have used here is a 300gsm card. The watercolour card allows the colours to blend and move on the card and the card will not pill when you add more water. You don’t need to invest in expensive watercolour paints if you want to try this technique – you could have a go with some cheaper watercolours or use watercolour markers or even Distress Inks if you have them.
For each of these cards you will need to create a watercolour background to use behind the die-cuts, or to use to cut out the dies. Use a large round brush or a flat wash brush for this because you are adding the colour in either a wash or random patterns. A larger brush allows you to apply the colour quickly. You can paint the colours onto dry watercolour card and blend then with more water, or you can start by wetting the card and adding the colours. Both will work and give a slightly different result – see which works best for you. Work quite quickly with the watercolours to create a random pattern and don’t try to blend the colours too much or you will create a muddy colour.
You can also try a few different things to give some texture and pattern to the watercolour. On the Best Wishes card I have used rock salt over the wet paint to give a textured effect. You can add water splashes to let the colours move and make a pattern or add flicks of colour to create unique pieces. When you are happy with your background you can use a heat tool to dry the piece. Now you can use the backgrounds to create some pretty cards.
Cut a piece of watercolour card 11cm square and die-cut the peony flower three times from white card and trim off the stems to leave the flower heads
Place the flowers on top of the card and mark the placement of the flowers with a few dots of light pink paint
Add red watercolour paint to the areas where the flowers were. Place the die-cuts over the top to check if the areas need to be any larger
Add more red watercolour to the areas keeping the colour darker in the centre and blending out to a light pink where the edges of the flowers will be
Add some green watercolour around the red areas
Attach the die-cut flowers over the watercolour panel with the edges over the edge of the card front, then trim the die-cuts and matt onto dark blue cardstock. Cut 12x17cm of green cardstock, attach to the card front and add the watercolour panel with 3D foam pads, a dark blue die-cut sentiment and gems to finish
You will need
- white 14.8cm-square card blank
- white & black cardstock
- watercolour card
- Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolour paints
- ¾” wash brush
- gems
- 3D foam pads
- heat tool
- Sizzix Tim Holtz Mixed Media 2 Thinlits dies
- Xcut Mini Sentiment With Love die
You will need
- white 21x14.5cm card blank
- black cardstock
- watercolour card
- Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolour paints
- ¾” Wash brush
- Memory Box Darla Butterfly die
- Xcut Mini Sentiment Happy Birthday die
- heat tool
You will need
- white & black cardstock
- watercolour card
- Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolour paints
- ¾” wash brush
- small brush
- gems
- rock salt
- heat tool
- Crafter’s Companion Die’sire Essentials Flowers For All Occasions 2 die
- Sheena Douglass Perfect Partners In Full Bloom Fabulous Foliage die
- Xcut Mini Sentiment Best Wishes die
You will need
- white & black cardstock
- watercolour card
- Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolour paints
- ¾” wash brush
- ribbon
- gems
- 3D foam pads
- heat tool
- Xcut Meadow Flowers die set
- Crafter’s Companion Die’sire Classiques Only Words Thank You die
You will need
- white 13x18cm card blank
- white, green & dark blue cardstock
- watercolour card
- Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolour paints
- ¾” wash brush
- Memory Box Blooming Peony Stem die
- Xcut Mini Sentiment Someone Special die
- gems
- 3D foam pads
- heat tool
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