Different coloring mediums

Watercolor vs Colored Pencils

Recently I’ve been using colored pencils as my go to coloring medium because I can take them on the go. I love the look of watercolor and have wanted to increase my practice of this medium in coloring my stamped images. In this post, I make two sympathy cards using the same stamp sets but coloring the images in with different media. Let me know in the comments which medium you prefer.

Watercolor

For this card, I stamped Avery Elle with Sympathy on a piece of watercolor paper. I cut out a mask from Inkadinkadoo masking paper to cover the sentiment. Then in StazOn jet black ink, I stamped the floral image from Concord & 9th Blooms and Banners stamp set above and below the sentiment. I then used Gansai Tambi watercolors to color in the images. The watercolor piece was cut down and the edges inked with Krylon Gold Marker and then adhered to a Hero Arts prefolded card. I stamped the same floral image onto the envelope flap in Momento Teal Zeal. This image was very quick to watercolor and very easy to get some nice gradients on the images.

Colored pencils

For this card, I stamped the Concord & 9th Floral image from the Banners and blooms stamp set onto a piece of Neenah desert storm card stock using Momento Tuxedo Black ink. Using Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils, I colored in the images. I then used the die from the Banners and blooms set to cut out the strip which I stamped and clear heat embossed Thank You. I also cut out a piece of fun foam to attach to the banner and give it more dimension. Using Right at Home’s Sweet Stitches frame die to cut the panel and add the wonky stitching. Krylon gold marker outlined the outside of the card stock and the panel was adhered to a piece of white A2 card. I finished the card with Nuvo drops in Moonstone and Robins egg blue. This was more time intensive than the watercolor card but I was able to finish it at one of my kids’ practices.

The watercolored images are softer but I appreciate the blends, bold colors and portability of using colored pencils. I hope you are inspired to try coloring your images in both watercolor and colored pencils to get different effects. Let me know in the comments below which medium, watercolor or colored pencils is your favorite. Have an inspired day!