29 Again…

No, I’m just kidding, I have no qualms sharing my age (33 today) and the sun is shining, what more could I want! Hubby and the kids let me sleep in and then made me breakfast and got me some wonderful gifts: A book I’ve been eyeing “100 flowers to knit and crochet”, a CD from the blues band Sapphire and get this my very own laptop computer!!! I am a lucky girl! I decided to make a birthday card with the sketch over at 2sketches4you and this was tricky for me, it took a few tries but in the end I like the results:

Digital stamp: Lindsay's Stamp Stuff, Paper/Cardstock: American Crafts, Georgia Pacific, Brads: Dollar tree, Rubber stamps: Rubberstampede, SU!, Die cut flourish: Cricut (ercolor crayons tutorial, how to watercolor crayons, blending pen, waterbrush, 2sketche) Scallop Border font: DB Pretty Borders cut with cricut and SCAL software.

I used watercolor crayons to color my new Oriental Poppy digital stamp. I like to use watercolor crayons because they are quick, easy and non toxic. I usually will print out a sheet of images and use my little Caran Dache watercolor crayon set of 15 colors and color them with my kids while they are coloring in their colorbooks. Its great to do while listing to audio books, their favorite are the “Junie B. Jones” books by Barbara Park (I like them too!) Also I used the font DB pretty Borders to cut the scallop borders on the card with my cricut at SCAL software.

How to color with watercolor crayons:

Step one: Loosely color in your image with the wc crayons. (I’m using a digital stamp printed on Georgia Pacific White cardstock from Sams Club) Don’t worry about coloring right to the edge of the design, you can “push” the pigment around with your waterbrush or blending pen later. *A waterbrush is a paintbrush with a hollow handle you can fill with water or paint, a blending pen is a marker with clear ink inside, the clear ink is made from water and glycerin.

Step two: Use a Blending pen or waterbrush filled with equal parts water and glycerin to blend the colors. The glycerin keeps the pigment moving smoothly without damaging or wrinkling the cardstock (or making the printer ink bleed if using a digital stamp) scribble on a piece of scrap paper to clean the brush.

Step three: after coloring use a pom-pom dipped in chalk to color the background, it give a nice quick blended effect.

That’s all there is to it! Practice to get the feel of this fun medium. I confess that I have the full set of 84 Caran Dache watercolor crayons but I mostly use my travel set of 15 half sticks because I can blend then and achieve almost any color I want and they are easy to stick in my pocket and travel with.

Other tips:

Since the crayon is pure color there is no waste, when you sharpen the crayons save the shavings in a small watercolor palette, give them a spritz of water and you can paint with them rather than tossing all of that good pigment away. I usually use a knife to sharpen mine (which I don’t do too often) If I need a fine line of color I wet a fine nylon brush and lift the color off the crayon stick.

If you don’t have a waterbrush or blending pen use a nylon artist brush dipped in a mixture of equal parts water and glycerin. Keep a paper towel handy to blot off extra water. * if working on watercolor paper with waterproof ink  omit the glycerin.

If you cannot find watercolor crayons try water-soluble oil pastels. You can get a set of 16 at staples (portfolio line by Crayola) for about $9, cheaper on-line I’m sure! They are also wonderful, they are thick and creamy, almost like lipstick. I would use a paintbrush or waterbrush rather than a blending pen for these.

Thanks for stopping by on my birthday, I’m gonna get out and enjoy this sunshine 😉 Till next time happy crafting!