I love the look of no line watercoloring - it is a bit of a 'fool-ya' technique, that makes you look like a rockstar painter. So, how do you do it?
To start, you'll want to put the Penny Black "Blooming Boots" Stamp onto an acrylic block and color it with Distress Markers. For successful no-line watercolor you will want to stamp the image using a light shade from the same color family that you will be using to paint the interior of the stamped image - bonus points if you can use a lighter color than you plan to watercolor with. If however there isn't a lighter color available to color the stamp, don't worry and just use the same color that you will be using to watercolor with. For my card, I colored the stamp using Distress Markers in Squeezed Lemonade, Worn Lipstick, shabby shutters.
If you are coloring a large stamp it is possible that as you finish coloring, the ink from the first part of the stamp that you colored may dry before you are ready to stamp. So, in order to combat that, I usually spray one pump from a water sprayer to lay a light mist of water over the image in order to reactivate the ink. Once you stamp, onto watercolor paper, it will look something like this. Don't worry if you didn't get a perfect impression, you just need to see enough of the image to use as a guide for your watercoloring.
Next you will get your ink set up to watercolor. For this image I used the following colors of Distress ink: Squeezed Lemonade, Fossilized Amber, Brushed Corduroy, Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick, Spun Sugar, Mowed Lawn, shabby shutters, pumice stone, Aged Mahogany. I either smooshed an ink pad, or colored with a Distress Marker onto my Ranger Craft Sheet, which I used as my painting palette. I then sprayed a few squirts of water below the ink. I mix this water with the inks in order to make my watercolors.
The next steps are to paint the boots and flowers, layering the colors until you are happy with the finished result.
To add grounding to the card, you will want to add a shadow at the bottom of your stamped image. That way the boots don't float on the page. It's a small thing that makes a huge difference in the card.
The final touch is to add a greeting, and I chose one from the Encouraging Greetings set by Pretty Pink Posh and stamped it using the Potting Soil Archival ink pad by Ranger.
Stamps: Blooming Boots by Penny Black, Encouraging Greetings by Pretty Pink Posh
Ink: Potting Soil Archival ink by Ranger
Watercolor paper: By Ranger
Pink Cardstock: Spring Assortment by Gina K
Tools: Watercolor brushes, Ranger Craft Sheet
Distress markers to watercolor with: Squeezed Lemonade, Fossilized Amber, Brushed Corduroy, Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick, Spun Sugar, Mowed Lawn, shabby shutters, pumice stone, Aged Mahogany
Other: Ranger Craft Sheet, Watercolor brushes, MISTI Stamp positioner (large or small, either will work for cards), vintage paper, sewing machine and white thread
