Border Bound - |  Week 1  |  Week 2  |  Week 3  |  Week 4  |

Watercolor Borders
By Helen Naylor

Watercolors are a fun way to add color and texture to your layout borders. I had discovered watercolors years ago, but often forget about them when doing my scrapbook layouts. I have watercolors in the tube and pencils, and I prefer to use my pencils when scrapbooking. They can be purchased in a set or individually. I used to buy the smaller sets (like the Derwent 36 Watercolour Pencil set) but when buying them now, I would wait for a coupon at my craft or art store, and go for the biggest one they make. Having more colors allows you to do more shading. I really wish that I had the 72 pencils set!

For these particular borders, I used templates as my pattern, and used the watercolor pencil directly on the paper. I opt to use the heaviest cardstock that I have and use water very sparingly. If you have watercolor paper, you can use that, but it is very heavy. Keep photos and other scrapbooking items out of the way when you have water on the table. 

There are two ways that I used with my watercolor pencil. In Sweetie Girl, I first outlined the design using my stencil and a drawing pencil, and then I colored in the shapes with the watercolor pencil. By choosing a lighter and darker pencil of similar shades, I shaded before using the water. You don't actually have to fill in the whole space to be colored because you can pull the color across the space by using water on your brush. Using 2 colors will give dimension to your artwork.

 

Sweetie Girl
By Helen Naylor

Supplies:

  • Stencil (Pebbles In My Pocket)

  • Watercolor Pencils (Derwent)

  • Green polka dot paper (Memories Forever)

  • Cardstock (Pebbles In My Pocket)

  • Paper Trimmer (12" Personal Paper Trimmer, Fiskars)

  • Adhesive (Hermafix)

  • Journaling Genie (Chatterbox)

  • Pens (Zig Twin Tip Writer, EK Success)

  In My Little Sunshine Girl, I did the actual tracing with the watercolor pencils directly on the paper, and then I used water to blend. This was done to eliminate the pencil lines, which you may not always want to use.

If you aren't sure this is a medium you want to get into, you can always try buying just a few and try them out. I first started using watercolor pencil to do hand-made cards, so I was glad I didn't have to buy them for scrapbooking. But that 72 pencil set is looking very tempting! Have fun with watercolor pencils!

My Little Sunshine Girl
By Helen Naylor

Supplies:

  • Patterned paper (Scrap Pads, Provo Craft)

  • Stencil (Pebbles In My Pocket)

  • Watercolor pencils (Derwent)

  • Cardstock (Pebbles In My Pocket)

  • Decorative scissors (Family Treasures)

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