No-Line Watercolor Wreath with Rachelle

I began with a piece of 110# Cougar Opaque White card stock - this is a bright white stock (cleaner than Neenah Solar White) and can absorb a lot of paint without pilling! I placed this large stamp into my MISTI and lightly brushed the surface with my kneaded eraser. This 'preps' the surface of the stamp and allows the ink to be applied evenly and completely. I don't always do this but this image has a lot of coverage and I wanted to be sure that it stamped correctly! I stamped it with "Antique Linen" Distress Oxide Ink a couple of times to get a good impression.

When painting an image like this one, it's best to start with the areas in the background and work your way to the front. This allows you to cover up all of the areas from the previous layer with your most recent application. So I began with the peach buds, then the green leaves, and the magenta/ruby petals, etc. In areas where you want to play light against dark, start with the light (as in the ruby petals) and then paint the darker color value on top. I painted each tiny section of the magenta first, overlapping the shape and then carefully painted the dark ruby around it. I continued with the blues, olive green and gold until I ended up in the center. Using the Distress Oxide Ink allows you to cover all of the image lines - the ink reacts to the paint and in effect, blends right into the background. After all the watercolor painting was complete (about 4 hours) I outlined the entire image with gold metallic paint using a very tiny 000-sized brush! You can see that detailing in the photo below!

I trimmed the panel down to 4" x 5.25" and mounted it to a magenta card front. Since the image was the star of the show, I simply added the one-word die cut from the "Slim Line Oversized Joy To The World Die" to finish up the card. 

I hope this has inspired you to try this watercolor technique! Be sure to visit the blog for more Christmas crafting inspiration tomorrow! Happy Crafting - Rachelle