How to use watercolour pencils to colour a digi stamp

Posted on 7th February 2017 by Angela Dodson
Filed under Card Making Ideas, All Papercraft Tutorials, Seasonal Crafts, Valentines Day Crafts

Hello, it’s Angela here again to share another project using the Derwent Watercolour Pencils. In my last post I used them to create a watercolour canvas effect, this time I am using them to colour a digi stamp image. My pack contains 12 pencils and I thought I would use a strip of paper to test the colours on, I scribbled stripes of each colour twice and used water on 1 of each colour, this provides an ‘at a glance’ reference, so you can see the shades easily when working.

I started by printing off a digi image (Tulip Bunny) onto Papermilldirect Ivory Linen card, I love the look of textured card. I then started to work with the Derwent Watercolour Pencils by carefully using them dry to start with, adding a little colour to shade the tulips, there are 2 red shades in the 12 pack, I used the lighter one first and then the darker ones for the edges of the tulips. Using a brush to add just enough water to move the colour and blend it. I continued colouring the image using a couple of shades for each colour.

Adding extra shading to the bunny using the darkest brown pencil brought the character more to life and it was easy to control the colour by taking the damp brush to the pencil to pick up the colour to allow for a more precise application.

When I was happy with the image, I then added a light outline of colourwash all around using the dark blue pencil. For this I scribbled the pencil onto an acrylic block and added water to it, mixing it with my brush before applying to the outline of the bunny. If the outline is too dark, then simply go over it again using a damp brush and pulling out the colour outwards.

When the image was dry I stamped a sentiment using black Archival ink and then trimmed the panel down before matting onto a slightly larger piece of PMD Azure Blue cardstock. I picked this shade to co-ordinate with the blue of the plant pot in the image. (note: you may wish to ‘fix’ the colours before sending out your card, if so then a light spray of hairspray should do the trick if you don’t have a sealer)

Score and fold an A4 Sheet of PMD Azure blue Cardstock and trim down to create a 5 ½” square card base. Mat image panel at an angle onto a square of PMD Ivory Linen card and then mount onto card front using double sided tape. To finish I added a little white pen detail to the bunny’s tail, feet and face, a little pink adhesive pearl heart, and a white paper insert.

Verdict: I am very happy with the effect the Derwent Watercolour Pencils gave. The colours are fresh and work well together, there is a good selection in the 12 pencil set I have, enough to blend, shade and colour any images you may have to work with. I’m particularly pleased with how easy they are to use and control the colour. If you make a mistake it’s easy to wash out extra colour with your brush, similarly it is easy to add extra colour and shading if required. These pencils are a great price and are sure to last a long time.

When working with watercolours, chose you card based on how much water you will be using, for this project the linen card performed well for me. If I was using a lot of water on a project then I would use one of the higher gsm PMD textured cards such as Hemp. There are a lot of different card stocks within the papermilldirect range to choose from and it's fun to experiment.

Angela x

Derwent Watercolour Pencils (12) - Papermilldirect

Ivory Linen card 255gsm – Papermilldirect

Azure Blue Card 270gsm – Papermilldirect

Tulip Bunny – Digi Stamp – My LC Designs (Little Claire)

Sentiment Stamp – Personal Impressions

XOXO Heart Shaped Adhesive Pearls – DCDOT020 – Dovecraft

Black Archival inkpad

White Pen

d/s tape

Tagged: design team, card making tutorial