Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Coloring 101: Twinkling H2Os

Twinkling H2Os come as small pots of shimmery gorgeousness. They are dry, and just require water to activate. Since Twinkling H2Os are incredibly easy to use and so sparkly, I'm a huge fan of using them for coloring large areas at once. There are lots of watercolor tutorials online and at SCS if you need the basics of more detailed watercoloring, but my method is unbelievably easy.



Start with a piece of watercolor paper. I use the Arches blocks available at the big box stores like Michael's or Hobby Lobby. It's a high-quality hot-press watercolor paper, and the block keeps the paper from buckling as much as it will if you use a regular watercolor paper pad or loose sheets. (Note: You can use a butter knife to separate your painted sheet from the block once it's dry). Hot-press paper is smoother than cold press, so if you want texture, choose cold press.

To paint large blocks of wash, wet the paper with plain water using a large flat wash brush. Then load the brush with paint and add the wet paint to the wet paper. You can load more paint and keep working the color as long as it stays wet. If you get too much color, you can use the corner of a Bounty paper towel (doesn't leave lint) to soak up extra and then add more water. It's a very forgiving technique and you can get really creative with blending different colors, too. I generally keep it simple. Bet that surprises you, eh?

Once your wash is dry, you can stamp all over it with a good black ink. I used Palette Noir, my go-to black ink for pretty much anything. Memento would also work well. I do this before removing the paper from the block because it stays flatter. You will see some buckling of the paper, but it's minor.



Then just start cutting. These images were mostly easy to cut and it didn't take as long as I thought it would to finish. I use small Cutterbee scissors because their very fine points are great for snipping into tight spaces.



From here, you can do whatever you want with all these lovely, shimmery images. Here are two cards I made just lining them up over text backgrounds. Because the images are completely colored, you don't have to worry about matching cardstock or using watercolor card bases. These are my usual PTI cardstock cards.


Wouldn't these make pretty gift sets?



As you can see, Twinkling H2Os don't have to be intimidating. Used in this simple way, they pack a big punch!

OLW4: Oh.My.Gosh. Y'all are doing a great job with this! I've had almost no time to comment and promise to get to all of them later today. Yesterday was DH's birthday, and I'm volunteering at the Scholastic Book Fair a lot this week. But thank you so much for participating in my OLW challenges!

35 comments:

  1. These are beautiful! Thanks for sharing your tricks of the trade with us! Can't wait to try this!

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  2. Absolutely gorgeous....and I own that stamp set too....what is it that makes a background of text and butterflies layered on top that is just 'simply' beautiful!

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  3. Susan, these are beautiful! What a wonderful way to make something so impressive. I've only heard of H2O's a couple times, and never in any way that I could figure out what they are. So thanks for the explanation, and the picture of them. Are they available at Michael's and AC Moore? They'd be great fun to play with! Especially if I can come up with something so soft, elegant, and impressive as you did!

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  4. Beautiful cards! Thanks for the
    inspiration and reminding me how
    much I love H20's. I should use them
    more often.

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  5. Gorgeous! I love every bit of this!

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  6. You've done it again - into my "gotta do it" file!! Simply beautiful (and now that I too own this set I can !!LOL)

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  7. your cards are lovely and even tho i don't have h2o's (not buying another thing for awhile) i can see doing this with alcohol inks and spritzing with perfect pearls - will have to experiment. love this hero arts set.

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  8. Your cards are exquisite....and would definitely make a wonderful gift set!! Susan G.

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  9. The pieces on the burgunday background weren't that impressive...but when I scrolled down and saw them on white...WOW did they pop. Appreciate the time it takes you to prepare these daily snipets of learning. Love that I don't have to absorb all at once!!! Just like the watercolor...a little at a time
    blessings
    patti moffett

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  10. These are exquisite!!

    I'm definitely going to buy that Antique Engravings set, even if I have to get it on ebay :o)

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  11. So pretty, so easy, and I have everything I need. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  12. Arches blocks? By big box, do you mean W-mart? Or Michael's (which around here is more of a medium box)?

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  13. OMG Susan these are gorgeous! I never knew how to use the watercolor paper in blocks! Thanks for that tutorial! I definitely need to try this!

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  14. Nicole,

    I mean M's, HL, and Joann's. You can also order them from lots of places online.

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  15. what a great idea, finally gonna use my H20s ;)

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  16. Thanks for the tutorial, I have seen them on sale online but had no clue as to how they were to be used! thanks again:-)

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  17. Such a cool idea! I never thought to use my H20's!

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  18. Your cards are absolutely beautiful. I have never used Twinkling HO2s but I will definitely try it. It looks amazing, thank you for the tutorial.

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  19. oh i love these, ive recently became your newest stalker! lol love every single card on you make...stunning work! thank you so much for sharing all your makes with us. I've entered your challenge this week and am already looking forward to next wednesday!
    love emma xxx

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  20. Wow, these are great! Thanks for another simple but fantastic idea.

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  21. Fun technique, thanks for sharing. I love the card with the 3 butterflies down the middle.

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  22. Wow - these are so beautifully simple and striking. And what a fab technique - thanks so much for sharing. :)

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  23. Your cards are very fabulous! Thanks for the inspiration and the oh-so-simple to understand tutorial on H2O's. Love it!

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  24. Scholastic book fairs! One of my (many) favourite parts of being a teacher-librarian. Well, okay, maybe not always the week it was actually running (meant for a few 12+ hour days) but the lead-up (previewing lots of books) and the follow-up (adding lots of new books to the collection) was fab. Thanks for the flashback!
    The cards... wow. I am so glad you don't use Copics (yet?), because at least you're not encouraging me to want those! :P Since I already enjoy using watercolour paints and pencils, these sound like my kind of fun. And if I could even approach your results... ! Thanks for sharing the Simplicity colouring tips!

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  25. oh, susan!
    thanks for the very helpful lesson.
    i am in philly with my family. looking forward to salt lake so i can go shopping for some twinking waters. thank you sooooo much!!
    marty

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  26. I know, I've said it plenty of times, but it's so true ... when I grow up I wanna stamp like you! Thanx for the inspiration! These are beautious!

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  27. So pretty and great tutorial! Congrats on the HA tweet!

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  28. These are gorgeous, Susan! I have a blog award for you on my blog if you accept them. =]

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  29. Love these - thanks for the inspiration. I have H20's and these stamps - why didn't I think of this before??? Love reading your blogs, you're such a good writer

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  30. WONDERFUL CARDS.... would certainly make a great gift set.
    Thanks for the great tutorial, so inspiring and easy to understand ;)
    Must gets some H20's and give it a go!

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  31. WOW! You've done it again, Susan--these are over the top!

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  32. This is such a better idea for watercoloring. Thank you. I might have to try it just to see if it works better than stamping first.

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  33. Susan, you are a genius! What a great idea to have all those images ready to go. I will have to give this a try with my severely neglected Twinkling H2Os. Thanks for the idea!

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  34. Thanks so much for this. It's beautiful. I have a whole bunch of neglected little pots of sparkle. I just never was inspired to use them other than for stained glass cards. Now I can't wait to dig them out for another try.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!