1. Colouring Wonderful Romance - Colouring with Inks.

I have said many times that I love to colour. The floral bouquet stamp from Wonderful Romance stamp set is perfect for this. So over my next few posts I am going to share the colouring of this image using inks and water colour pencils  with an aqua painter or blender pen,  and blenders (alcohol markers).
I must say that I am most comfortable colouring with my water colour pencils. I am improving with my blenders. I have used these less than water colour pencils and I am still working out the intricacies of these markers. Really my biggest problem is with 'bleeding' past the lines. I tend to over saturate the paper with ink when blending the ink shades.  I just need to practise more. Lastly, I am out of my comfort zone when water colouring with inks. I think mainly as  I am impatient and like to have more control over the medium used. I am also self taught so I do make lots of errors.
So I will be brave and share my cards that I did with inks. Firstly, I did stamp out a few images onto watercolour paper with Versa Mark ink and embossed, one with silver, one with gold and one with copper. I taped each down to a board with blue painters tape to avoid warping. Embossing helps make water colouring easier as the water stays inside the lines and stops unwanted mixing of colours. This is particularly good for impatient people. I spritz the paper first before adding any colour.  I prefer to use my markers to scribble ink onto a stamp block.  Have some hand paper towel on hand to clean off the aqua painter or for moping  up excess water from the brush. Also, very handy to mop up errors. One tip with choosing colours is be aware that mixing water with ink dilutes the strength of the colour, so either pick a stronge colour or be prepared to dry off between repeated application of ink. The same applies with adding a different colour. My best advice is to have a go! It won't be perfect but treat each time as a learning session.


Water colouring is 'magic' - but that usually appears a day or two later, well for me anyway!  I am never really happy with what I do straight after colouring but I find if I leave it to dry naturally, it always looks better to me a day or two later. Sometimes I leave it as it is, and sometimes I play around with it.
Well here's my three cards completed using inks and an aqua painter.

This is my favourite from the three cards.  And yes!, 'happy' was stacked. That's the other fad I am going through. Cutting out multiple dies, glueing and stacking for dimension. The die came from Well Written Framelits Dies. The paper comes from Gingham Gala 6x6" DSP and the ribbon is a freebie from SAB.












Here's a closer look at the other two cards.