Distress Ink Watercoloring plus Tips

Hello stamping friends!  I wanted to share some watercolor techniques you can use to create images that have light play and depth to them and you can use Distress ink.

I chose the beautiful Cherry Blossoms set from Inspired By Stamping for my stamp images today. I first stamped the sentiment using Versafine Onyx Black ink because it's waterproof. I then stamped the cherry blossoms in Picked Raspberry Distress ink. On my non-stick craft mat I pressed my ink pad onto it so that I'd have color to pick up with my damp brush.

I began with my leaves. Color your leaves in with one layer of Distress ink and let it dry. Then using the same color, I used Peeled Paint, go over just part of the leaf to create a darker shadow. You can achieve varying shades by layering. With any water soluble medium (Distress ink, watercolor etc. ) the key to successful layering is letting each layer fully dry before adding more. Otherwise you will just be adding too much water and the pigment will keep getting diluted.

After my leaves were dry and painted in the flowers. I did one petal at a time and was sure to not work on adjacent petals so that each could dry without running into each other. One way to achieve the impression of light is to be sure while you are painting to not cover up all the white paper. See all the little white spots I left? Those were on purpose to give the flowers a light infused look. Once your first layer is dry, use the same color and go back over layering darker color onto the petals that would have shadows on them, such as the ones that lie beneath others.

For my flower centers I used Spiced Marmalade. The final touch was diluting some of the Picked Raspberry color and picking up as much as my brush could hold and gently tapping my brush to create splatters. I highly recommend letting your wet media pieces air dry versus using a heat gun. The paper will dry a lot flatter and the color won't be disturbed by any movement.

Here is my completed card. I added two layers of border stitching with my sewing machine and a few rhinestones around the sentiment.

I hope you enjoyed my tips and will try them yourself! Thanks for joining me today.

Cherry Blossoms stamp set

Distress Ink in:

Picked Raspberry
Peeled Paint

Spiced Marmalade

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Canson XL watercolor paper

Winsor and Newton Cotman size 6 paint brush

white cardstock

non stick craft mat