Watercoloring with Markers by Kathy Racoosin

Welcome! I hope you’ve enjoyed Technique Week Part II! Here’s our last installment of coloring techniques for the week…although I have one more lined up for next week. Kathy Racoosin takes us through using makers and a misting bottle for a watercolor look and feel…

Supplies: Penny Black Stamps; Mimi & Miles and Love Grows (from our new Amour 2011 Collection!). Tombow Markers, small spray bottle of water, watercolor paper, colored cardstock, black pigment ink, clear embossing powder, paint brush, heat tool, fine tip black marker, white gel pen, gemstones, Ranger Distress Ink (Lipstick, Firebrick Red, Faded Jeans, Tumbled Glass).

Color your stamp with markers. Don’t worry if the ink from the markers dries on the rubber. NOTE: This particular stamp is a sample, that’s why it is on a acrylic block instead of a woodblock.

Mist the rubber with the water spray bottle and stamp onto watercolor paper. TIP: You may want to practice with a small stamp to test how much water is needed to achieve nice, watercolored image. You can fill-in any vacant portions of the image with a brush and water, as you’ll see below.

The heart on the left is an example of not enough misting with the water. I decided to see what the result would be to get a second stamped impression. I didn’t think either one was good enough for a card but, I persevered and decided to work with both hearts.

Using a fine tip brush you can add color to your images. You might notice that a fine tip black marker added some highlights to each image. Each heart has a different fine tip black marker. (the right is a Copic Multiliner 0.05 and the left is a Sharpie “fine” )

Here are few more examples of this technique. Two friends recently had deaths in their families hence the broken hearts. To create a broken heart start at the bottom and lightly draw a zig zag down the middle of the heart with a pencil. Use a sponge dauber to add highlights to the heart with distress ink. Mount on paper and cut out again.

Please visit Kathy’s Blog, The Daily Marker by clicking on one of her cards, for more tips and tricks, and to see the wonderful ways she treated the inside of these cards! Have a great weekend — we’ll be back on Monday will a full week of brand new Penny Black projects!