Anyone who took any painting classes with me in art school will probably doubt the sincerity of my next statement, but I love using watercolor in my work. Simple as that. They’re quite versatile, easy to transport and work really well with doodles because of their transparency.

Of course, it took me about 10 years of practice to get to this point. Last year I was cleaning my house and found my old watercolor palette from art school. You can see it at Amy Tan’s blog - it’s the 6th photo block down after the image of Amy with her product, and I’m the one on the right (ignore my blink-in-progress expression) and the palette is to my left. I love that palette. It’s got a gazillion different spots for colors and a huge divided space in the middle for mixing even more. And since watercolor is reusable so long as you have some water handy, I was able to use all the custom colors I mixed during art school.

If my classmate Nancy were reading this right now, she’d probably be shaking her head in disbelief, because I think I managed to miss more classes during watercolor than I actually attended, and I barely passed (only thanks to a few big projects that kept my grade passing). Thinking back on it now, I realize that I hated watercolor because it didn’t work for what I wanted/needed it to do at the time. I wanted to manipulate the paints like I could acrylics, and that just won’t happen.

Watercolors were designed to be transparent and to be worked with multiple layers. They’re soft and wispy and provide just enough of a hint of color without dominating the entire piece. However, if you need them to be bolder, you just add less water. You are in control when you’re working with watercolors. 

When I found that palette last year, I began playing again. Then I dug out my old box of paints and was overjoyed to find that most of them were still intact. Only a few were dried out, so I was able to start mixing my own colors again. I discovered that all the knowledge and experience that I had in the back of my brain came together in a way that made sense, and I was no longer afraid of these materials. Instead, I embraced all that watercolors can do and started integrating them into my scrapbooking and crafting.

This weekend I was a little lost when it came to a layout and wasn’t sure how to recover the page. I grabbed my trusty Galaxy marker and wrote the word “Dream” on the page. Then I started playing with the watercolors and I was inspired to totally change the page and make it into something that worked for me. I love the way it turned out and hope you do, too:

I’ll be back in a little while with some tips, and I’m working on a way to share some of what I’ve learned with you all. You can do so many fun things with watercolor, and the best part is, if you make it too dark or put some in a place where you don’t want it, you can make it fade out so far you’ll barely see it there (depending on what paper you use). I keep a set of Prang watercolors in a box in my crafting kit at all times as a backup for when I don’t have the space for my giant palette. I highly recommend them!

More coming soon, including tips on how to make your titles pop with the watercolors. Hint: if you use the galaxy markers, you can wipe it off of the letters with a little water and a towel.

Enjoy & have a great day!