15 Cheap or FREE Watercolor Hacks!

| thefrugalcrafter Lindsay Weirich

Hi friends! Today I am going to share 15 cheap supply tips you can use today in your watercolor painting projects! You have probably seen me use some of these before but if you are new it can be handy to have them all in one place! Please share this video with other new watercolorists out there, remember, sharing is caring!

 

15 Watercolor Supply Hacks!

1. Free spill proof water buckets: Use Tofu or mushroom packaging as water containers. They are free, won’t tip over and the ridges on the bottom and sides with gently clean pigment from your brush!

2. *Bonus tip: Use single or dual pet food bowls from the dollar store for a truly non spill water bucket for children!

3. Need a place to keep your paint? Recycle an old eyeshadow compact or pill-box for a portable palette!

4. Credit card scraper: Cut up an old credit card or plastic gift card and use it to scrape, scratch or squeegee your paint around when making rocks, trees and grasses.

5. Rubber band brush: Bundle a bunch of rubber bands together for a funky brush to paint foliage with!

6. Cut up kitchen sponge: A cut up kitchen sponge and be used to tap on trees or bushes or stamp on bricks and rocks. You can even keep a small piece of sponge in your paint palette to wipe you brush on.

7. Also while you are in the kitchen plastic wrap makes a cool texture when left to dry in watercolor and…

8. …salt in a watercolor wash looks cool too!

9. Toothbrush splatter tool: Why buy a pricey spatter tool when you can get better results from an old toothbrush, just load it up with paint and drag your finger or a craft stick across the bristles. Use wetter paint for bigger spatters and dryer one for tiny specks.

10. Rubbing alcohol makes cool bubble like effects in a wet wash

11.Less Sticky masking tape: Taping down your paper is a good practice to keep it from bucking as you paint. The low tack or artist tape is pricey so buy your tape at the dollar store and stick it to your clothing before your paper. The tip will pick up lint from your clothes so it will be less sticky and won’t rip your precious watercolor paper. Bonus side effect: lint free clothes!

12. DIY Watercolor block: Watercolor blocks are great because you don’t need to tape down your paper but that convenience comes at a price. You can make your own buy cutting your paper to size along with a sheet of cardboard and gluing the edges. I have a tutorial here.

13. Keep the whites with wax! Use a clear or white crayon, candle or hunk of canning wax to preserve white areas of your painting, just apply it to your dry watercolor paper in areas you want to be white before you begin painting. *Note, you do not need to remove the wax from the paper, it’s fine:)

14. Masking fluid dish soap trick: Make sure you don’t ruin your brushes when you use masking fluid, first coat your brush with dish soap or bar soap and then apply as usual. *It’s a good idea to mark that brush as a masking fluid only brush too.

15. Keeping your supplies identified: If you travel to class with your supplies you will want to make sure you don’t lose them or go home with someone else. Here are some ideas for marking them: 1. Stick on one of the free return address labels that you get in the mail, 2 use nail polish on the ends of your brushes 3 find a pretty washi tape and mark all of your tools with that but be sure you go over it with clear tape so it stays.

A lot of people on YouTube asked me where I got my martini tape despncer, I bought mine at the dollar tree over a year ago but you can also find it on Amazon.

Save 30% on any class in my online school with coupon code: 15HACKS

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OR try my new Watercolor Floral Workshop course for 50% off through 6/30/18  *Use coupon code FLOWERPOWER if discount doesn’t appear automatically.

If you found this list helpful please share it on Pinterest (or any other social media network) using the handy sharing buttons below. It really helps out my blog and YouTube channel and encourages me to make more frugal videos like this! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

 

7 thoughts on “15 Cheap or FREE Watercolor Hacks!”

  2. Hi Lindsay! I love your Watercolor Hacks and have used a few of them in the past, like labeling my supplies. Can’t wait to try rubber-banding the brushes together I also loved the watermelon tutorial but couldn’t access the link for the photo reference. Is it still available? Thank you so much for sharing all of your knowledge and talent with us. It’s a pleasure listening to your bright and bubbly personality at work!  Sincerely, Jacqueline     “…the truth will set you free.” ~ John 8:32 “If you are a minority of one,the truth is the truth.”(Mohandis Ghandi)

     

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  3. Terrific set of very useful tips, most of which are useful for more than just water coloring.

    #4 I also use them for cleaning the mats for my Cameo, scraping off my glass cutting mat, and putting texture paste (I use dollar store spackling compound) through stencils.

    #9 I also keep a few toothbrushes for cleaning stamps. I label them for the different solvent used (water, alcohol, stazon cleaner). One I keep in a flask with water and some of your stamp cleaner. It’s ready to go at all times and cleans better than a baby wipe. Better for the environment too.

    #10 I had never seen the alcohol trick. It’s a really cool result.

    #12 I tried this and it worked great. You have to be fast as the glue dries quickly, so my result was not as neat as yours, but a small amount of time got me a custom watercolor block.

    #15 I learned the hard way when something (very expensive) I had lent out at a scrap never came back.

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