A Woodland Watercolor

Hello! Today I’m sharing my challenge inspiration for the latest Kitty Bee Designs Aloha Friday Challenge. For this challenge, with a theme of forest friends, I chose to work with a forest scene by A Day For Daisies, called Forest Friends.

When I first saw this image, I immediately thought it would look good as a watercolor, so I simply printed it onto watercolor paper, using a laser printer, taped it onto my work surface and began to color the background with my Zig Clean Color Brush Pens and some water. Once I’d finished the background, I allowed it to dry before applying the Zig Clean Color Brush Pens directly to paper for all the foreground images. I wasn’t overly cautious with any of my coloring as I thought this image lent itself to a little loose watercolor with its sketchy style.

I finished off my painting by adding some white Generals Scribe All AllSurface Pencil (1254) to the background to emphasize the clouds. This pencil will work on most surfaces but what I like most about it is that it’s also water soluble, making it great to add detail to a Zig pen watercolor.

Once everything was dry, I added some black Sakura Glaze Pen to each eye and the deer’s nose and, once that had dried, a tiny spot of white Sakura Gelly Roll pen to each eye, directly onto the black. I love how these pens can be used in the same way as liquid embellishments, but on a much smaller scale.

I trimmed the watercolor down to fit a 5″×7″ card base and glued it onto the card base, using small amounts Ranger Multi Medium Matte Adhesive. I didn’t use too much wet adhesive because I didn’t want the moisture from the adhesive to affect the watercolored piece in any way.

I decided at this point to allow the painted image to do most of the presentation work. I cut a piece of white card down to 5″×7″ and cut the centre out of it with a die from the Sue Wilson Noble Double Pierced Rectangle Die Set. I then misted the frame lightly with Tsukineko Sparkle Sheer Shimmer Spritz and once fully dry, I glued it in place over the watercolored panel.

Along with the frame, I also misted a scrap piece of cardstock and die cut a small birthday greeting, using an Elizabeth Craft Large Happy Birthday die. I glued that directly onto the watercolor panel, again using small amounts of Ranger Multi Medium Matte Adhesive.

When I look at the finished piece, I feel like I’m looking out through a window, which I think is a great result for a card that’s has very little layering. It’s going to be a great one to quickly pop in the post. Thanks so much for spending time with me today. I look forward to next time…😊