Watercolored hydrangeas

Last weekend was the Stamp and Scrapbook Expo in our area, and I had a blast. I went both days, and I even signed up to take a few classes with a friend. One of the classes, taught by an instructor from Krazy Kreations (sorry I can't remember her name!), was focused on using the ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers with the outline stickers from Krazy Kreations. We practiced three different techniques while making focal images for three cards. Here are my completed cards:

For this card we applied a hydrangea sticker on watercolor paper and used ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers and an aqua brush to color the pot, leaves and flowers. There were also a few individual blossom stickers, so when I got home I colored those, cut them out and added them to the main flower to create a little dimension. Not too bad for my first attempt with these brush markers, right?

For the second technique, we used a smooth-finish white card stock and gently applied the outline sticker. Then we watercolored the image and removed the sticker. We didn't use watercolor paper for this technique because removing the sticker would pull up the fibers in the paper, so we had to be a little more careful about how much water we used. The white outline created with this technique is definitely striking.

This probably looks a lot like the first card, right? That's because it's basically the same -- slightly different colors and a different twine placement, but it's the same technique. I had bought some markers at the Expo and loved that first technique, so I tried it again at home. I love the darker purple flowers, and this makes me think of stained glass.

For the record, the third technique we learned in our class was to transfer the negative parts of the sticker to the watercolor paper and then add a watercolor wash over the whole paper. (So you end up with a black image and colored outlines.) We had run out of time during class, so I did the watercolor wash at home, but I really wasn't crazy with how it turned out.

I was lucky and won a few more sticker sheets at the end of the class (and of course bought some at the Krazy Kreations booth), and I know I'm going to have fun painting them. Thanks for stopping by!