Watercolor valentines

Happy Valentine's Day! A handmade card is a great way to show your love on Valentine's Day -- or any day! -- and this year I had fun making valentines with new watercolor paints and fun heart dies.

Supplies:
Paper: Poppy Parade card stock (Stampin' Up!), gold foil sheets (Stampin' Up!), watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolor paints: 30, 33, 37, 42, 139 (Kuretake)
Accessories: Hearts Entwined die (My Favorite Things), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter), Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal)

I've tried making watercolor wash backgrounds before, and I was never really happy with the results. The last set of paints I tried -- a cheap set -- left a chalky residue that would smear across the card, even when it was dry. But I got a set of Gansai Tambi watercolor paints for Christmas, and so far I love them. They are beautiful and creamy and didn't make me frustrated -- always a good thing with my craft supplies.

Most of these cards have a very similar layout -- this first one is my favorite; it makes me so happy! -- so I'll just explain my overall approach. I cut a piece of watercolor paper to 3-3/4" x 5". With a brush I applied a light layer of water in the middle of the paper, stopping about 1/2" from the edges. That creates a space for the paint to flow.

Supplies:
Paper: Purely Pomegranate card stock (Stampin' Up!), gold foil sheets (Stampin' Up!), watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolor paints: 30, 33, 37, 42 (Kuretake)
Accessories: Hearts Entwined die (My Favorite Things), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter), Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal), Artist-tac adhesive (Grafix)

Once the paper was wet, I picked up the first color of paint and applied it in either a horizontal or diagonal stripe. Then I added the rest of the colors, rinsing the brush between colors. Once all the colors were on the paper, I used my paintbrush and a little water to blend the colors. I started with the darker colors at the top, lightly brushing back and forth (in the same direction of the colors), and moved down to the light colors at the bottom. A couple of times I had too much water on the paper, so I blotted it with a paper towel and, if needed, added a bit more paint. Then the hard part -- waiting for the paint to dry. I'm impatient, so I used my heat gun to help the process along a bit.

Supplies:
Paper: Purely Pomegranate card stock (Stampin' Up!), copper foil sheets (Stampin' Up!), watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolor paints: 30, 33, 37, 42 (Kuretake)
Accessories: Hearts Entwined die (My Favorite Things), Sentimental dies (Avery Elle), All Year Cheer washi tape (Stampin' Up!), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter), foam sheets (Taylored Expressions)

Once everything was dry, I die-cut hearts from foil sheets, adhered them to the watercolor paper and added a few clear sequins.

For this card, I trimmed down the panel of watercolor paper and adhered it across the card. I used copper foil instead of gold for the die-cut shapes (I trimmed out two of the hearts from the full die cut) and added a strip of copper washi tape across the top and bottom edges of the watercolor paper.

Supplies:
Paper: Berry Burst card stock (Stampin' Up!), gold foil sheets (Stampin' Up!), watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolor paints: 30, 33, 37, 42 (Kuretake)
Accessories: Hearts dies (Little B), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter), Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

For this card and the next one, I switched to a single large gold heart. This is actually made with three dies from the set: one to cut the outside edge, one to cut out the inside, and one to add the faux stitching. Before doing any die cutting, I set the three dies on the table, nested inside each other, and gently shifted them until they were lined up. Then I used a couple of small pieces of washi tape to hold the dies together. With the dies taped together, I could cut out multiple hearts without having to rearrange the dies each time I used them.

Supplies:
Paper: Poppy Parade card stock (Stampin' Up!), gold foil sheets (Stampin' Up!), watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Gansai Tambi watercolor paints: 30, 33, 37, 42, 91, 139 (Kuretake)
Accessories: Hearts dies (Little B), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter), Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal)

For the background panel on this card I added gold watercolor paint to the color palette. It has more shine in real life than it does in this photo, but if I were to make this one again I would leave it off. I think it makes the card seem unbalanced and bottom-heavy; that was the reason I positioned the heart a little higher on this card. Or I could have had gold paint in the upper left and lower right corners and worked through the colors to the purple in the middle (so gold, yellow, orange, red, purple, red, orange, yellow, gold). Maybe I'll try that next time.

And now for a card that's completely different ...

Supplies:
Paper: Thick Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!), gold foil sheets (Stampin' Up!), water color paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Black journaling pen, gold paint pen (Sharpie), Gansai Tambi watercolor paints: 30, 33, 37, 42, 139 (Kuretake)
Accessories: Hearts dies (Little B), vintage newsprint washi tape (unknown), Scripty Hello die (Lawn Fawn), Brights sequin assortment (Stampin' Up!), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter)

While I was practicing with the watercolor paints, I used a scrap of watercolor paper for test swatches of the colors I wanted to use. The scrap ended up looking really cool and I didn't want to waste it, so I die cut it into the word "hello." I combined that with a piece of newsprint-style washi tape and a gold heart (the center of one of the hearts from the previous two cards) on a white card base. I doodled a black border with a few gold dots and added three bright sequins to finish the card. It's definitely a non-traditional valentine, but it was perfect for one of my friends.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope your Valentine's Day is filled with love and friendship -- and a little chocolate!