Beginner Simple Watercolor: Mondo Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)

Hello, Friends ... Happy Sunday! Today I have a simple 2 or 3-color watercolor technique to share with you, using the GORGEOUS new Mondo Sakura stamp set from Julie Ebersole for Essentials by Ellen, available NOW!

Tip for beginners:
To color this beautiful floral image, first I heat embossed the image with gold detail embossing powder onto watercolor cardstock. The embossing helps to hold your colors within the lines and not bleed into other areas!

Then I used Daniel Smith PrimaTek watercolors: Rhodonite (pink) and Jadeite (green). I simply watered down the pink color until it was very light and applied it to all of the flower petals, leaving some white space around the upper edges of each of the petals. Then I just gradually mixed in a little more of the pink color, to deepen the centers and lower edges of the petals. By gradually deepening the color, you can achieve wonderful shading with just one pigment! I did the same thing with the leaves and stems.

Once the flowers were colored, I used Dandelion Kirarina WiNK pen to fill in the centers of the stamen.

Optional: Add a third color to fill in the background. I used my favorite mixed aqua combo, using Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors, extremely watered down, to wash over the background around the flowers. Another beginner tip: Water down your color a LOT so that it is lighter than you think you might like. You can always add a little more pigment, but it is difficult to take it away once it's on the paper!

To finish the card, I used one of the fabulous sentiments from Julie's new Totally Random Sayings Vol. 2 stamp set, gold heat embossed onto Essentials by Ellen 40 Lb. Vellum. I absolutely adore the mix of large and small, and handwritten fonts in this set! To secure the vellum sentiment strip to the card front, just fold the left free edge of vellum and secure it between the layers of cardstock. The lower edge of the card front and watercolored panel were cut away with Pretty Pink Posh's Scallop Borders 2, along with a mat layer of Bazzill Lollipop cardstock.

Watercoloring has been one of my very favorite coloring techniques since I first started stamping about 14 years ago ... I hope you'll give it a try and will find these tips helpful. You can find the rest of this gorgeous new release over in Ellen's shop HERE. Thanks for stopping by!

SUPPLIES:

Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps, Mondo Sakura by Julie Ebersole

Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps, Totally Random Sayings Vol. 2 by Julie Ebersole