Watercolor Throwback - Cottage & Fence Dies

Hello Ai Fans!

We have a Watercolor Throwback for Watercolor Wednesday this week! One of the most common questions we get at our retail shows is how to use our WC Fence Dies. We love this design by Bonnie and thought it was worth bringing back from October 2017!


Bonnie used both our WC Fence Dies and WC Cottages Set in this video! She starts by die cutting one of our fences with a Stamping Mask Paper and adhering to her watercolor paper. She then overlays our small and large grasses and vine from our Foliage Set 1, then adding flowers from our Flower Set 1. Bonnie then removes the mask and adds more vines and flowers over the posts on the left side. She also adds some small sprigs at the base of the fence posts. From there, she uses sticky notes to mask the foreground and our Stamp Positioner to perfectly place the cottage. She pulls color from the lines and adds brown from her palette and finishes the image with some climbing vines on the sides.

We have had quite a few people contact us on how to get new upload emails from YouTube and want to help! Once you have clicked "subscribe" on our channel, click the "bell" next it to receive emails as soon as a new video is available! We always appreciate a thumbs up on any video you like, as well!

We hope you enjoy this new video and our latest releases! Happy Watercolor Wednesday!

View on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zLII41jei2U

Desert Window Pop Art Inspired | By Jessica Shier

Hello Ai Fans!

It's officially summer! This Desert Window set is perfectly paired with a few Succulents set sentiments to make a bright pop art watercolor design. I even used Tombow Markers for the first time and the Art Impressions Watercolor Palette. So easy and fun! I hope you enjoy the card process video I have below. 

To start this card design off, I stamped the Desert Window image 4 times on a piece of Arches Cold Press watercolor cardstock. I used Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and clear embossed each one. I'm going to use this Desert Window image in a similar way as I did with the Eagle Window in this blog post for Art Impressions that I did last week. I love the elegant sentiments that come with these window images but I also like the versatility of using other Art Impressions sentiments with them to make something even more unique. In this case, I used several phrases from the Succulents set. I even used one of the succulent stamp images as a backdrop to the center "Just for you" sentiment. I used vellum cardstock and white embossing powder for a subtle look. 

It's been a while since I have colored with a marker like the Tombow, so I really took some time playing with them. By mixing and layering the colors in this funky pop art inspired design, it was so fun letting loose and creating purple suns and pink cacti! The great thing about this though is if you are not a big fan of bright colors as I am this would also look lovely in pastels or muted tones. Since today is the first day of Summer I thought the bright colors were appropriate. 

Card Process Video

Tombow Markers Used:

Brights set

755 Rubine Red

743 Hot Pink

933 Orange

055 Process Yellow

133 Chartreuese

173 Willow Green

493 Reflex Blue

665 Purple

636 Imperial Purple

Thank you for joining me today! Happy Stamping! 

Watercolor Throwback - Glass Vase with Flowers

Hello Ai Fans!

As you probably know, Art Impressions premiered on HSN yesterday (you can watch a replay here)! So we are throwing it back to one of our most popular videos from 2018! Bonnie created a translucent glass vase, showing the submerged stems of her beautiful bouquet of wildflowers. We LOVE this technique and hope you enjoy this tutorial, whether it's new to you or and old favorite!

Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube challenge for the latest notifications of new uploads! And you can check out all our Watercolor Throwback favorites on our special YouTube playlist!

Happy Stamping!

View on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GnLVJeRrqfY

Love Lives Here Succulents Card by Jil Lebel

Hello Ai fans!

I've been wanting to watercolor some flowers for a while now.  The new Succulents stamp set was the perfect excuse to get out my markers and brush.  I really enjoyed how fast and easy these images were to color.  I did a bunch of cards in a very short time.

The images were stamped onto Bristol paper with Scrapbook.com Black Hybrid Ink and colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.   I used a #1 brush with very little water and my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers to color the images.  I added the marker to the base of the petals and pulled it out with a damp brush. The largest succulent is the most complicated.  I used 041 Light Green and let it dry before I came back in with 400 Marine Green at the very darkest parts of the leaves. I then added a tiny bit of 082 Purple to the tips of the petals. The other succulent that I used multiple colors on has tiny red points at the tips.  I used 045 Pale Green at first to try to give it a very light color. Then I dotted the 022 Carmine Red onto the tips of the leaves and added my damp brush to a few of the dots.  I used 041 light green, 031 Cobalt Blue and 081 Light Violet on the other images. I then die cut the larger images with the dies from the stamp set and cut out the two tiny images.

I then cut out my two main panels of paper from the patterned paper with my Rectangle A2 Double Stitched dies and attached them to my white A2 card base.  Using the same patterned paper, I cut out a Circle Double Stitched Die.  I also cut out a brown circle and attached the other circle over it. I cut a piece off of the bottom of both of them with my stitched rectangle die and attached it to the card with foam tape. I used the shape of the circle to add the succulents around the greeting.  Some were attached with glue while a couple were attached with foam tape.  The last thing I did was attached some enamel dots around the card.  

Thanks for stopping by and Have a Great Day!

You Brighten My Day Watercolor Card by Carol Hintermeier

Happy Monday Ai Fans!

Today I have one of my favorite type of cards to have on hand--one that I can use for many different reasons to send to a special person!  It's also my favorite type because it's watercoloring the Ai way!! In February I had the pleasure of attending an Ai Watercolor Class at the Stamp & Scrapbook Expo.  I also got to visit Art Impressions' beautiful booth and picked up this awesome WC Jars Set.  This was my first time playing with it and it was so relaxing to just color!

After I stamped and watercolored everything I cut the image out with a Hexagon Double Stitched Die and then used that die and the next larger one to cut out frames from the watercolor paper three times.     After I glued them together, I used the same blue that I used on the pitcher to color the frame.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention I used the WC Stamp Positioner to make sure I stamped the decorative flourish in just the right spot on the pitcher.

I adhered the frame to my white card panel and then glue the stamped image inside.  Such a simple, but sweet, card to make!

Thank you so much for stopping by!  Have a wonderful, crafty week!!

Tombow markers:  177 Dark Jade, 743 Hot Pink, 565 Deep Blue
Marvy marker:  100 Sapphire

Watercolor Throwback - Beginners Info & Urn

Hello Ai Fans!

Welcome to a special Watercolor Throwback! We are so excited to have how many new friends joining in our watercolor technique, and it's always a great idea to get back to the basics! Bonnie created this step-by-step tutorial on how to get started and create a basic container image back in January 2018, and it's a great image to start with!

Also, did you know we have 155 videos on our Watercolor Wednesday playlist? With endless hours of tutorials, we invite you to check out the playlist and find a video you haven't viewed before! Hop back to this video and leave us a comment on the new tutorial you found!

Happy Watercolor Wednesday!

For Watercolor Stamping, there are some necessary supplies to get the desired look.

Basic Supplies
1. Watercolor Paper (Canson XL or Strathmore)
2. Synthetic, Round Watercolor Brush #4 (Connoisseur)
3. Water-Based Markers (Tombow Markers - Bonnie's Favorites)
4. WC Foliage Set 1 and WC Flower Set 1
5. A Main Image Set of your Choice
6. Watercolor Palette and Acrylic Blocks

Let's explain these more in detail!

Watercolor Paper is very important for this technique, as when you stamp in water-based ink, it keeps the color on top of the paper, so you can easily move it with a damp brush. Cardstock and alcohol-based markers will not work for this project series. We prefer Canson XL or Strathmore watercolor paper and use the textured side, as it does not oversaturate the paper with color.

Our Connoisseur #4 Brush is a coveted item, as no regular brush will do! One, your brush has to be synthetic, as natural hair brushes will sag and not hold its shape with water on it. The synthetic gives us the 'bounce' we are looking for as we blend and gently tap around the image. This brush is also the perfect size to pull color from your main images and blend your flowers and foliage.

Although any water-based marker will work for this technique, we highly recommend you use Tombow Dual Brush Markers on your projects. First, we like Tombow markers the best because they are very wet, so when stamping your multiple impressions, you can get up to 10 images, where other markers you might get 3 or 4. Second, Tombow has highly pigmented colors, so when you are blending, you do not need to work as hard to blend. Third, we love the bullet tip on the other side of the Dual Brush Pens (or use our TwinTone markers for an even finer tip), which give us the ability to add darker shadows and details to the image to really make areas pop!

To get stamping, we suggest starting with our WC Foliage Set 1 and WC Flower Set 1. These basic sets are what you will carry through all your projects. You will see the grasses, vines, flower bunches, and long stems used in any watercolor we create. We started with these two staple sets because if we created sets with everything for one project, you would end up with a multitude of tiny grasses or flowers! Once you have these two, you can pick and choose whichever scenes you would like to create, such as gorgeous containers, stunning structures, or beautiful landscapes.

We add color to many of our images (washes of the sky, color to main images) and the easiest way to do this is by rubbing the brush tip of your marker onto our Ai Watercolor Palette and pulling the color off with your brush. This gives you great control over the amount of color going to your image, and you can easily shade by adding layers of color. Our palette is a game changer, perfectly white so you can see your color, and you can always reactivate the dried ink with your damp brush.

Another great option to add to your collection are our tiny Acrylic Blocks. We offer square blocks in 1", 1.5", and 3" to offer smaller sizes for your little images, like the teeny tiny grass and daisy bunch. Bonnie is often suggesting to permanently adhere your tiny stamps to our 1" block with super glue so you don't lose them!

Now check out this great introduction to watercolor video with Bonnie, as she shows the step-by-step techniques in building your foliages and flowers, and how to add them together in this urn from our WC Ornate Container Set.

View on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qC4BL-JZDTM

Happiness Grows by Niccole Kulig

Hello Ai fans!

I am here today to share a card I made using two watercolor stamp sets; WC Sentiment Set and WC Tree Set 1.  It is my first time playing with Ai's watercolor stamps and Tombow Markers. I am by no means a watercolor artist but I think I did ok for my first card.

I colored and stamped my tree images and then I stamped a second time and stamped again.  I used gold paper layered along with some hunter green paper.  I stamped my sentiment with Happiness Grows from the WC Sentiment set.

 As you can see above I raised the tree portion with foam tape.  I felt with thicker jute wrapped around it would sit better on the card.

 For the inside I though the Love You A Bunch was perfect.  It is also from the WC Sentiment set. I also colored some more trees and stamped them in a bunch behind the sentiment.

Once again here is the finished card. No Copics were used for this card only black ink and my Hunter Green Tombow marker. I hope you enjoyed my first (but definitely not my last) watercolor card.  I had so much fun coloring and stamping.  Do you think I should have added more or less water?? Next time I might spritz my stamp before I stamp it and see what result I get. 

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Until next time ... Hugs & inky fingers!

NEW VIDEO! Wooden Bridge Watercolor

Hello Ai Fans!

It's our favorite day of the week - Watercolor Wednesday! Bonnie continues through our new 2019 Watercolor releases with this beautiful rustic bridge over a small stream. She features our new WC Bridge Set image and surrounds it with a tree made from our WC Branches Set, vines from our Foliage 4, tiny grasses from our Foliage 1, and dotted buds from our Mini Flowers Set.

We hope you enjoy this week's video! Don't forget to subscribe and click the bell on our YouTube channel for all the latest Ai videos!

Have a wonderful Watercolor Wednesday!

View on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4UttpO-U-aQ

Hop Till You Drop | By Jessica Shier

Hello Ai Fans!

The challenge #254 has started for the release of the new Girlfriends clear stamps sets. Perfect time to break out this Art Impression Hop Hop set! I thought these ladies looked like they were up to some spring picnic shenanigans with all their fun hopping objects. 

I stamped the ladies with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink on Arches watercolors paper. Using my Koi watercolor set I water colored these ladies and the background, adding in a bit of a finish line in white to seem like they are racing to win! 

Once my piece was dried I trimmed it down to attach to a A2 card base. I added a black and white stripe of pattern paper on the left and some lovely jewels that match the colors of the hopping ladies clothes. 

For the sentiment I die cut the smallest Double Stitched Oval die on white cardstock. Then stamped the sentiment from the Hop Hop Set with Distress Oxide ink. Placing on the top left of the card, then trimming off the top that overhangs.

That is it from me guys! Thank you so much for joining me today. Happy Stamping! ❤

NEW VIDEO! Beach Shack & Girl Watercolor

Hello Ai Fans!

Can  you tell we're ready for summer? It's another tropical paradise for Watercolor Wednesday! Bonnie transforms our WC Garden Shed into a beach shanty with swaying WC Palm Trees behind it, with an adorable little girl playing in the sand in the foreground.

What's your favorite tropical location? Leave a comment on this video over on YouTube so we can dream of sunny days with you!

Have a sunny Watercolor Wednesday!

View on YouTube: https://youtu.be/YWdg92zY9fE