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Watercolor Pencils Direct To Stamp Technique Autumn Leaves Cards

Hi everyone.  Welcome to the Unity blog.  I’m Gaylynn. Watercolor in card making is not as difficult as it may seem. Try the watercolor pencils direct to stamp technique. This is great to do using mixed media style stamps or solid stamps.

Both cards were made using the same process for the leaves. I used the Grunge Grove stamp set by Unity Stamp Company. See the full supply list linked below.

Sentiment:  Grateful for you this season.

Helpful Tips:

  1. Select your stamp and watercolor pencils. I used red rubber stamps. Have a spray mister handy and a stamp positioning tool like the Misti.

  2. Position the stamp inside the Misti or onto a stamp block.

  3. Lightly spritz a stamp with water. Color directly onto the stamp with watercolor pencils or watercolor crayons in your choice of colors. I used four colors, orange, yellow, purple and green.

  4. Lightly spritz again. Then stamp onto the watercolor cardstock. Allow imperfect blends of color. It will be different each time.

  5. Repeat as necessary for your preferred blend or pattern.

  6. Heat set.

  7. Optional: fussy cut the leaves.

  8. Adhere and layer over the card base. I show two layout options. The possibilities are endless for cards and tags.

 

This is a look at the leaves stamped together onto one white watercolor cardstock panel.
Sentiment: Grateful for you this season.


Next, this is another card using fussy cut leaves over a dry embossed cardstock layer.

 

Check out the short video of the watercolor process.

 

Finally, be sure to visit my other features here on the Unity Stamp Co. blog:
Technique Time and Watercolor Wednesday.

I hope you try this project and share your makes in the Unity Show & Tell Facebook Group.  Feel free to tag me so that I can see what you make.

Thanks for stopping by.
Don’t forget to get my crafty newsletter by email. Click HERE to subscribe.

 

Gaylynn

 

Click the link box below for the affiliate supply page for this project.


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Spring Watercolor Card Uniquely Unity February 2025

Greetings, Gaylynn here.  Spring brings pastel colors to mind. This is a Spring watercolor card. It features an adorable Easter bunny rabbit and egg scene.  I used lavender and pink. I used stamping, dry embossing, and watercolor pencils in this card project. Here, I outline step-by-step instructions. This bunny scene and sentiment are stamps from the Unity Stamp Company Uniquely Unity line for February 2025.  The supplies are noted below.

Also, this pretty stamp was paired with flower stamping, color cardstock and embossing folder texture.

Helpful Tips:

1.     Prepare an A2 sized card base from white cardstock, 4 1/4″ x 5.5″ folded horizontally.

2.     Trim a rectangle background frame panel 4” x 5 1/4” from lavender cardstock.

3.     Optional:  Dry emboss a texture onto the lavender panel using an embossing folder.

4.     Stamp the bunny scene using waterproof ink onto the smooth side of watercolor paper.

5.     Stamp the sentiment in black ink onto white cardstock then die-cut using Scallops & Banners {nesting dies}

6.     Die-cut the bunny scene using Scallops & Arches {nesting dies}

7.     Add your coloring of choice to the bunny scene.  I used watercolor pencils for watercolor.

8.     Once the color is dry, add twine and embellishment dots to the arch layer.

9.     Stamp and fussy cut a floral accent.  I stamped the flowers from Well Hello There stamps using purple ink onto pink cardstock and then fussy cut.

10. Adhere the lavender background frame panel to the horizontal card base using flat double-sided.

11. Adhere the finished bunny, sentiment and flower panels over the lavender layer, to finish.

Here is the first part of the card making process.

And, this is the prep for the last part of the process.

This is a look at the finished card up close.

Be sure to visit my other features here on the Unity Stamp Co. blog:
Technique Time and
Watercolor Wednesday.

I hope you try this project and share your makes in the Unity Show & Tell Facebook Group.  Feel free to tag me so that I can see what you make.

Thanks for visiting.
To receive my crafty newsletter by email, click HERE to subscribe.
Gaylynn

Supplies:  Click below for my project affiliate page with clickable photos.


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Watercolor pencils cotton plant hugs card

Hi friends.  Gaylynn here.  For today, I am sharing the card technique of watercolor pencils on a cotton plant card.  This was fun to color using watercolor pencils. 

To bring out the colors, I added a dry embossed purple background layer.
Helpful Tips:
To make this watercolor pencil cotton card, begin by preparing an A2 sized card base in white.  Then, stamp the cotton, the script element and the sentiment onto the smooth side of watercolor paper.  Next trim or die-cut the cotton panel and a background layer.  For the background layer, I used purple cardstock and dry embossed that layer, optional.
Then, select a few shades of watercolor pencils.  And, grab a small flat tipped paint brush.  The flat head is more stiff to help move out the color from the pencil marks.  Next, to apply color, very lightly add shading where you want color onto the watercolor paper.  Then, with a damp flat tipped brush, move the brush from the pencil shading out.  You will notice the color flows with the water and brush.  Another way to add color is to directly swipe a wet brush onto the pencil tip and then add color to the panel.  In this project, I used both techniques.  Once coloring is finished, heat set the panel.  Finally, layer it all onto the card base using extra tacky foam or flat double-sided tape, to finish.

 

This is the card a bit closer.

This is a video of this project process.

Don’t forget, you can find my other Unity Stamp Co. features and supply links below:

Technique Time and
Watercolor Wednesday.

I hope that you give this a try and also share your makes in the Unity Show & Tell Facebook Group.  Tag me so I can see what you make.  I can’t wait.

Enjoy your day.
Gaylynn


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Watercolor pencils, stamping & sketching ~ frog card tutorial

Hello, Gaylynn here.  Stamping and sketching provide fun background scene building details.  Today, on the Unity blog, I am sharing a way to sketch a stage scene for this adorable stamped frog.  Intense watercolor pencils were used for color.

For this card idea, I wanted the frog to have a stage.  So, I made two similar cards by stamping and sketching the stage background scene.  The stamped frog and sentiment are showcased right in the center.

Sentiments:
You are pretty much amazing!
Hi there.  How are you?

Helpful tips:

Here are helpful tips for card stamping and sketching.  To begin, stamp the frog onto watercolor paper using waterproof ink.  Also, stamp and trim the sentiments.  Next, sketch lightly around the frog to create curtain creases and a stage floor.  Then, using watercolor pencils, lightly sketch the pencil colors then blend them out one color at a time, for watercolor.  Next, trim or die-cut the dried frog scene panel to fit onto a card front.  Finally, assemble the layers to finish.

Here is another frog card version.

Here is my video tutorial for this project.  It will detail the full process.

Supplies:  Unity Stamp Co. Salutation Toad.

Also, Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils 2400, 1740, 1530, 2100, 0400; paint brushes, heat tool, black embossing powder, Wow embossing pad, Altenew palette mat, Fiskars paper trimmer, mini Misti, MFT extreme black hybrid ink pad, A2 stitched rectangle STAX & stitched modern rectangle die-namics; foam double-sided tape, Ranger plastic craft mat & watercolor paper; cardstock.
Remember, if you want to view my other projects on the Unity blog, see my features linked below.

Technique Time
Watercolor Wednesday.

Please, tune in next Wednesday with a new project for Technique Time.
Thanks for visiting.

Gaylynn

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Perfect Paper Challenge

How many of you have pads and cases of designer paper?  I have a plethora of paper, and some of it is so dang cute I feel guilty cutting into it. However, when we cut into our supply it makes room for new cute styles.  That is why this week’s challenge is to find that perfect paper to go with your Unity stamps to make a project.

I bought the stacks of paper with certain Unity Stamp Co stamps in mind!  Does anyone else do that?  I saw the Echo Park Coffee stack, and I instantly thought of my Gracielle coffee kits.  I found the Zodiac pad and remembered the cute moon and stars stamps I own.  My shopping spree gave me so much inspiration to use my Unity stamps.

Inspiration:

First up, we have my projects featuring paper from the Okey Dokey set by DCWV.  The stack was so dang whimsical that I needed to pair it with all my favorite woodland creatures stamps from Unity.

Okey Dokey Paper by DCWV

Kits Used: Lookin’ Foxy & Abundant Blessings

The “Lookin’ Foxy” kit by Lisa Arana just kills me every time I see it!  After picking out some woodland themed paper from the Okey Dokey paper pad, I colored this little cute with some Prismacolor pencils.  A trick I have for the little shadow around some images is to use a light watercolor pencil.  I used a teal and gray, and then I took a little colorless blender for watercolor markers to feather it out!  The sentiment comes from one of my favorite sentiment kits ever: “Abundant Blessings.”

Kits Used: Showing Up Gnome & So Very Much

The second card uses the kits “Showing Up Gnome” and “So Very Much.” Picking the perfect paper doesn’t mean you have to use images that match, although you can.  One side had these little mushrooms I fussy cut as my embellishments.  So, when I was selecting my background paper, I wanted to match those colors.  I thought a stripe would be adorable, and I tried using the hues from the stripes in my coloring.

Zodiac Paper by DCWV

Kits Used: Vibes and Tribes & Don’t Give Up
Kits Used: Vibes and Tribes & Don’t Give Up

The Zodiac pad was actually kind of difficult to use.  I LOVED the paper when I saw it, but then when I went to cut it down to card size it lost some of its cool spaciness.  That happens sometimes.  Then I remembered, the stamp is the feature of the project.  I stamped the image by Angie Blom from “Vibes and Tribes.”   A doodle border with stars around the edges and a bit of vellum added visual interest. The sentiment is from “Don’t Give Up.“

 

Coffee paper by Echo Park

Kits Used: Stay Strong & One Sip at a Time

Finally, my most literal card has coffee bean paper!  Eek.  I loved that so much.  I watercolored the frappe from Gracielle’s kit “Stay Strong” and used her sentiment from “One Sip at a Time” inside the cup.  Mixing kits is my favorite hobby,  and the Gracielle line goes so well together.   The background is from Echo Park’s 6X6 Coffee pad.

Challenge:

  1. Choose:  Pick out a Unity Stamp Co. stamp and some matching paper.  Remember, the paper could be themed the same, have similar images, or a color scheme that inspires you.
  2. Create: You can create whatever kind of project you like, but you must use a Unity stamp kit and some kind of designer paper as the feature.  As for coloring, use whatever you like, or don’t color the image at all! That part is up to your creativity.
  3. Post: Make sure to post your creations on the Unity Show and Tell site on Facebook.  Add your photo into the Perfect Paper Challenge album for the chance to be selected for a prize!