I wanted to make a special card for a crafty friend who showed me a special kindness recently (surprising me with doggy crafty yummies out of the blue for no reason!), and she loves the Prim style so I decided to try my hand at watercoloring the sweet girl with her arm around her pup\u00a0from the\u00a0My Favorite Things “You Have My Heart” stamp set<\/a><\/span>. This card will be accompanying a crafty love gift package back to this sweet friend.<\/p>\n

This is my first attempt at watercoloring a girl image (not just critters which I think are more forgiving and have fewer details), so I was nervous, but I knew that (1) I wanted to push myself craft-wise, (2) the soft watercolor look is perfect for Prim style projects, and (3) the friend this was going to would appreciate the love that I was going to put into this card. So I took a deep breath and cut down some Strathmore Bristol paper (this is great for watercoloring and has a smoother finish than most\u00a0watercolor paper) and pulled out my Prima watercolor pencils\u00a0and Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils.<\/p>\n

<\/a>To get the softest look possible, I\u00a0decided to\u00a0try no line watercoloring (if you’re going to go for it, you may as go all the way, right?!). I did a second generation stamping onto the paper using Ranger Archival Ink in Sepia and it gave me a pale but clear image. Then I took my time and started layering in the following colors (it took about 3 applications to build up the color intensity I wanted), making sure to let each prior layer dry before adding the next so that I didn’t get too dark, which can happen if you touch watercolor pencils to wet surfaces:<\/p>\n

Hair: Prima 120 and 64 (this is a light blue that I thought would add a nice shiny look to the black hair)
\nSkin: Prima 05 and 09 with 25 for blush
\nDress: Derwent Inktense Poppy Red (0400), Tangerine (0300) and Sun Yellow (0200)
\nDog: Prima 86, 89, 102 with 120 for eye and nose
\nSky: Prima 64 and 71 with Derwent Inktense Fuschia (0700) for interest in clouds
\nGrass: Prima 44 and 47 with Derwent Inktense Apple Green (1400) and Teal Green (1300) for deeper, richer colors to give enough visual weight to support the little girl and dog<\/p>\n

Then I used the largest die from the My Favorite Things Die-Namics Cross-Stitched Rectangle STAX<\/a><\/span> to cut down the little\u00a0painted scene. I think the cross-stitched look adds a nice homespun feel. To add texture and softness, I backed this with a paper doily that I cut in half and attached askew to the lower left and upper right sides of the scene. Then I backed that with a piece of vellum to add another layer without adding too much visual clutter. I matted\u00a0the whole assembly with\u00a0a yellow scribbly patterned paper from the Amy Tangerine Sketchbook paper collection that I thought grounded the whole thing\u00a0and echoed the yellow from the little girl’s sleeves. Finally, I took everything to my sewing machine and sewed three wonky lines close to the top of the scene. I love the look of real stitching on cards (but it takes a really special project to motivate me to get down and unpack my sewing machine), and this addition I think adds a great Prim finishing touch and echoes the yellow scribbly patterned paper too. \u00a0I added double sided foam adhesive to the back of everything all assembled and put it on a pale blue handmade paper card base.<\/p>\n

The following is a video share of this card:<\/p>\n