Hello crafters! I am so thrilled to be back with a new video for you! I’ve got some super-fun Studio Monday videos planned for the next couple months and cannot wait to share them all with you!!

Today’s tutorial is going to touch on watercoloring with the oh-so-beautiful Zig Gems palette. Have you gotten to see or play with these new watercolors? The metallic jewel-tone colors are simply stunning, especially when you use them on dark colored cardstocks.

You could easily do this technique on black cardstock, but I fully admit that I am a color-girl! So in my case, I opted for Simon’s Soft Navy as my base cardstock.

These watercolors perform beautifully on darker surfaces; the vibrancy literally jumps off the paper! When you use these Zig Gem colors on lighter paper, you get a much softer and almost pastel effect. The photo below demonstrates the difference between dark and light surfaces. I personally really like the intensity you get with dark paper!

My card features images from a couple of new Pretty Pink Posh stamp sets; Pretty Petunias and Hummingbird Thanks. Each image is white heat embossed onto Soft Navy cardstock and then colored with the Zig Gem watercolors.

When I watercolor onto cardstock like this, I make sure to use as little water as possible so that I do not over saturate the paper. I also purposely did the white embossed outlines for two reasons:

1. The colors will stay within the areas in which I place them because of the raised, embossed outlines. This makes the watercolor process easier since you don’t have to worry about adding color next to a wet area.
2. White embossing shows up so much better on the dark paper, rather than a plain stamped image. It also gives each image an extra bit of “pop”!

Once the images were colored and dry, I cut each one out with the coordinating dies for each stamp set. I then began to layer them onto the navy card base with foam tape.

There is also a die cut sentiment featured on the card, which is also from Pretty Pink Posh! This stunning script Thank You was cut from one of my a gold satin-foil cardstock from Tonic Studios. You’ll also notice that there is an outline around the sentiment; if you watch the video I created for this card, you’ll see how I did that.

Finally, I added Nuvo Drops in the Gloss White color around my images to tie in a bit more of the white and create some depth for my scene.

I hope you will watch the video to see this card come together, as well as get a close up look at the beautiful Zig Gem watercolors! If you don’t have this palette of pretty jewel toned colors, you can find it here. I think you’ll have fun incorporating these watercolors into your upcoming projects!

Thanks so much for visiting with me today; I’ll be back next week with a brand new Studio Monday tutorial!

WATCH THE VIDEO

SUPPLIES

Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi GEM COLORS… [ SSS ] Pretty Pink Posh HUMMINGBIRD THANKS… [ SSS ] Pretty Pink Posh HUMMINGBIRD THANKS… [ SSS ] Pretty Pink Posh PRETTY PETUNIAS… [ SSS ] Pretty Pink Posh PRETTY PETUNIAS DIE Set [ SSS ] Pretty Pink Posh THANK YOU SCRIPT DIE… [ SSS ] Royal Langnickel ZEN WATERCOLOR BRUSH… [ SSS ] Tonic GLOSS WHITE Nuvo Crystal Drops… [ SSS ] Brutus Monroe ALABASTER Ultra Fine… [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp Embossing Ink Pad… [ SSS ] Inkadinkado EMBOSSING MAGIC Powder… [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp Card Stock 100# SOFT… [ SSS ] Tonic HONEY GOLD Mirror Card Satin… [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp VELLUM SSSVEL12 [ SSS ] EK Success CUTTER BEE Scissors EKCB01 [ SSS ] Spellbinders PLATINUM 6 Die Cutting… [ SSS ] MINI MISTI PRECISION STAMPER Stamping… [ SSS ] 3M Scotch DOUBLE-SIDED FOAM TAPE… [ SSS ] Precision Heat Embossing Tool Gun… [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Tonic Craft SHEARS 9.5… [ SSS ] Tombow Mono LIGHT TOUCH PLASTIC… [ SSS ]

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