Studio Monday with Nina-Marie: Zig Gem Watercolors on Dark Cardstock
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:
- 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.
- 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!
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That humming bird is so sweet.
Beautiful card. Love the stamps and the watercolors. Thanks for sharing…
Love all that shimmer. Great colors in this Zig palette. Nicely done.
What a stunning card; you are so talented.
LOVE the shimmer!
What an amazing idea to watercolor on dark colored cardstock! It’s totally new to me
A gorgeous card! Live the design & the stunning colors! Thanks for showing how the colors look on light cardstock also. I think every cardmaker should have a set of these awesome colors!
Gorgeous cards. The colors are so vibrant.
What a beautiful card! I’ll be trying this technique with the white embossing and watercolors for sure! ❤
I just bought this Hummingbird set yesterday and I can’t wait to try this. I love how those paints show up on dark cardstock. Your card is beautiful.
Wow, I can never dream that this can have an amazing result, thanks for sharing your talent!
Absolutely gorgeous! Those colors are beautiful together!
Love the gorgeous, vibrant colors! And the hummingbirds … can’t wait to own that cute set.
Love the card! The hummingbirds are just adorable, and the Zig Gem watercolors look like fun!
Beautiful colors! Love the metallic look of them!
These gem colours are fabulous. I love your arrangement of the florals and the tip for creating a sentiment outline. Thanks for the inspiration.
What a gorgeous card, the watercolors are amazing!
Love the vibrant color and shimmer with these watercolors especially on the navy card stock, beautiful card!
So beautiful! Love the deep colors with the white embossed outlines!
Love these paints on black cardstock
This is so beàutiful Nina. I love those gem tones,just stunning. As always your card is amazingly well done and the PPP stamps and dies are great.
Lovely card!
A very pretty card – love those sweet hummingbirds!
Stunning card! I really like these water colors on the dark cardstock more than on the light cardstock just like you said the colors are very Vivid.
Love the colors on this stunning card. I will definitely try this technique!
Terrific card Nina-Marie. Love the soft but bright colors against the dark background. Great video.
Ooooh gorgeous! Love the intensity of your colours :)
The colors are wonderful as well as the Hummingbirds.
Melissa
“Sunshine HoneyBee”
Those hummingbirds and flowers are stunning! Love the look on dark colored cardstock <3
Such a beautiful card, Nina-Marie! I love the look of those watercolors on the dark cardstock – I wouldn’t even bother using them on white cardstock.
Fantastic tutorial and card, Nina-Marie! What a difference between the Zig Gem watercolors on the white cardstock compared to the dark! Looking forward to trying this out! ?
Absolutely loved this gorgeous video and card. Navy is my favorite too and now I will have to look into these paints. The idea of outlining the sentiment was genius, never would have thought of that.. once again brilliant video and card.
Oh my, this is absolutely stunning, love the blue base instead of black and those watercolours are gorgeous! A new product to me and one that has gone to the top of my wish list.
Nice card. Love the colours.thank you.
These are really beautiful Nina-Marie!! I wasn’t aware of this awesome product until this post!
Wow, these Zig Gem colors are awesome! Such a striking effect on the darker papers! Stunning card! LOVE the hummingbird
I love how the colors pop on the black background. Simply stunning.
Those Zig Gem Watercolors are sooo pretty!
Can’t believe the intensity of those watercolours on the dark paper! Such a beautiful card!
I love the vivid colors of these zig watercolors. I will have to buy these.
So Pretty Nina-Marie! I’m surprised at how bold these paints are on colored card stock.
Those gem watercolours are so vibrant on dark card!!! Gorgeous card.
Somehow these gem watercolours had slipped by me… they look awesome on this card!
What a super pretty card! LOVE the colors and all the different images. Oh and the watercolors….yep, just something else that I now NEED :-D
Beautiful! I love the sparkly watercolor on the dark blue cardstock, you are right the white embossing really makes it pop!
I am a sucker for shimmery water colours/pencils/markers – these are now on my wish list! They are gorgeous on dark colours and I love your use of the blue card stock!
Beautiful card Nina-Marie. The watercolors are so pretty on the dark colorstock!
Beautiful card thanks for sharing
This is a gorgeous card! I love the navy cardstock and the gem paints are beautiful on it! I always enjoy the tutorials!
What a lovely reminder to use my metallic paints (I have some finetecs, but same idea). And I can’t think of a more perfect image to use metallics on than a hummingbird. These turned out so pretty. Thanks for sharing!