Brushless Watercolor Class - Tim Holtz Distress Markers

A while ago I took an amazing class from Susan Porter, one of my favorite artists, and I'm just getting around to posting the four lovely cards we created.  The brushless watercolor technique has been around for a while and is relatively easy with beautiful results.  The background in each of these cards uses a little different technique. For this card, I used Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord distress markers to color the flowers directly onto the stamp and Peeled Paint and Forest Moss to color the leaves and stems.  After coloring the stamp, I spritzed it with water using a fine mist spray bottle and used gentle pressure to stamp the image onto watercolor paper.  I added Distress Stickles in Dusty Concord to the centers of the flowers and Peeled Paint Distress Stickles to the leaves.

The second card was stamped on Mattekote stamping paper. I colored the flowers with Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves distress markers, the flower centers with Scattered Straw and Wild Honey, and the leaves and stems with Peeled Paint and Forest Moss. I spritzed with a fine mist before stamping. The result was a little less textured than the watercolor paper, but just as pretty, I think. 

The third flower has a pallet painted background. I scribbled Scattered Straw onto an acrylic block and spritzed with a fine mist.  On watercolor paper, I used a large flat wet paint brush to paint the rectangular area I wanted for my flower background.  Using the same brush, I picked up the diluted Scattered Straw distress ink from my acrylic block palette and painted in my defined rectangle.  I dried this area with a heat gun and then stamped my image using the brushless watercolor technique.

My final (and favorite) card has a  resist block stamped background.  I embossed the image of the tall foliage on watercolor paper with white embossing powder.   I colored the surface of a 3" x 5" acrylic block with Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint distress markers.  With the block facing up on my table, I spritzed with water and let the colors run together.  I carefully flipped the block over  and pressed it onto my watercolor paper. I dried it with a heat gun and then stamped my image using the brushless watercolor technique.  

I always forget how fun and easy this technique is.  Have you tried it? You absolutely should!

Thanks for visiting.

Go forth and be fabulous.

Nancy