Weeks of Wonder: A Softer Touch With Watercolor Pencils

Don’t you just love the soft, blended colors of a watercolor painting? You can add this beautiful touch to your artwork with the help of our versatile watercolor pencils. In today’s post, I’ll go over a few different techniques that you can easily employ on your own projects to add the perfect softness to your stamped images.

Nothing says “soft” like a newborn baby, which means that watercolor pencils are a sure bet for this baby card. For instance, the background pattern was stamped second generation using an image from the Two-Step Backgrounds (D1473) stamp set. The color was added with watercolor pencils. To get the same kind of look, just scribble the desired pencil on scratch paper and add water. This will let you pick up the color with a waterbrush, so you can have complete control over where you want the color to go.

A similar technique was used on the heart on this card.

First you’ll stamp the heart image from the Love Life set (D1482) on Colonial White cardstock. Cut the heart out and turn it over so you have a blank heart shape.

Color the part of the heart that you want to be darkest. Use firm pressure so you will have plenty of color to pick up with your waterbrush.

Use your waterbrush to pull the color across the entire image. Wherever you applied the pencil is where the color will be strongest, and you’ll have a nicely-shaded look on the final piece.

You can see this softening touch in the small stars on this darling baby boy card. And look at how cloudy those flourishes are! This is another simple way to use the watercolor pencils on your projects. After stamping an image in second generation, trace the line with the same color of watercolor pencil. Then simply go over it with your blending pen to make the whole image look like it was put on using watercolors.

And while you’re at it, try your hand at a little free-hand. That little blue cloud floating by was added with the waterbrush after picking up some color from a separately-penciled piece of scratch paper. Same with the subtle shading on the hot air balloon basket, and the gentle green around the edges of the showcase album.