Card Making Technique: No Line Watercoloring & Embossing Folders

images copyright 1990-2022 Stampin' Up!®

Y'all know I LOVE watercolor techniques, particularly easy watercoloring techniques and faux watercoloring techniques. Well, I wouldn't label these easy, but they are fun. And, they are a couple of new-to-me watercolor techniques that I just had to try out - no line watercoloring and watercoloring on embossing folders.

If you missed my YouTube live, you can watch the replay to see exactly how I did this watercolor technique. And, I have the supply list and another sample of watercoloring on a dry-embossed image below. So, on y go! Let's get stamping.

I started by embossing a piece of Fluid 100 Watercolor paper with the Into the Clouds embossing folder from Stampin' Up!® Then, use a very dry water painter, I colored over the embossed image going perpendicular to the lines in the embossed image. This allowed the ink to color the raised portions revealing the lines in the embossing. I colored the sky with Balmy Blue and added a little Smoky Slate to the clouds.

I used the Butterfly Brilliance stamp set for the butterflies on this first sample card.

No Line Watercoloring

For the sample card you see here, I stamped the butterflies with Sahara Sand ink. It was very hard to keep the ink from getting muddy though. So, in the video, I used Stazon ink which is permanent. I stamped it off on scrap paper before stamping it on Shimmery White cardstock.

The idea of no-line watercoloring is to make the stamped lines disappear and create the appearance of a watercolored image. This happened more with the Sahara Sand, but the yellows got a little brown. 

I colored over the butterflies with Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody, and Pumpkin Pie. The sentiment is from the Blessings of Home stamp set and I cut it with the Stitched Rectangle dies. 

images copyright 1990-2022 Stampin' Up!®

images copyright 1990-2022 Stampin' Up!®

Coloring Dry Embossed Images

Here is another sample of coloring on a dry-embossed image. This time, I used the Fern 3D Embossing Folder. I colored the ferns with Parakeet Party, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, and Shaded Spruce. This provides a colorful background of greenery for my brilliant butterflies.

Instead of watercoloring, I used Stampin' Blends to color these butterflies. I stamped them with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and then colored them with Granny Apple Green, Melon Mambo, Petal Pink, and Flirty Flamingo Stampin' Blends alcohol markers. You can see the difference in technique.

Supply List

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images copyright 1990-2022 Stampin' Up!®