Tutorial: Watercolor Eggs with Carson Riutta

To begin you’ll want to gather all the supplies you see here. I’m using mixed media paper as my card front, as it holds up well to the water and is closer to a bright white than the watercolor papers I own. I also like its smooth texture for card making. The brush is simply to help you clean up your card if too much water pools on your stamped image, you can also use a corner of your paper towel for this if you don’t have a brush handy. And the stamps and inks can be of your choosing, pick your image and your color palette and have fun.

Start by mounting your stamp and inking it with two different colors. I chose Flamingo and Sunny Day for my first egg. If you’re worried about mixing colors on your ink pads, feel free to leave some space between the two colors on the stamp. Once you spritz with the water the colors will move and fill that empty space.

Now simply spritz your stamp with water, once for a cleaner look and twice for a more mixed, true watercolor look.

Stamp the wet stamp to your paper and watch the magic happen. The colors will mellow and blend as they dry, so don’t judge the image right away. If there is a large pool of water after you stamp, it will give you that watercolor bloom effect. Dab the puddle with a dry brush or a corner of dry paper towel if that is not the effect you’re looking for. Also, you may want to test your color combos beforehand. I was pretty happy with the way most of these colors mixed, however, I did stop using the Coral Bay ink with this technique as it had as it was creating a bit of a brown color that I didn’t like. You can see what I mean in the second egg stamped below.

Continue the process until your card front is filled with beautiful watercolor images. I finished the card with a simple die-cut sentiment and label from the Homespun release and added a bit of stamping and stitching for added interest.

I hope you’ll give this easy technique a try and upload your projects to the member gallery. I can’t wait to see what you create!