Winter Watercolor Notebook Tutorial

Hi and welcome to my blog today! The world is white outside my window, and although the snow is not very deep, it makes everything lighter. I particularly like when the branches of the trees are covered in snow.

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog we have a Christmas / Winter Holiday theme. And don't miss checking out the project of our December guest designer Valarie-Jael, with her blog Bastelmania. 

I started out planning to make cards, but then thought about notebooks, since I needed some small gifts for Christmas. Once I started, I had such fun making these winter watercolor notebooks, that I made four of them. There is some stamping involved too, of course. The notebooks are 4.3 x 6 in (11 x 15 cm) big, which is a good size for a notebook. I used good quality paper inside, so the books can also be used as sketchbooks. The Great Outdoors set by Tim Holtz is perfect for a winter scene.

These are the four notebooks that I made. When I was done, both Anton and I wanted one of our own too, so I might need to make another two.

Start out by white embossing Tim Holtz Flurry background on the top part of the watercolor paper. On some of the books, I stamped it about two thirds down on others more to the middle. Paint with watercolor paint. I used a dark greyish blue and a slightly more blue mix for the sky, both made by mixing Ultramarine Blue with Burnt Sienna. The yellow is Raw Sienna. You can also use Distress Ink, by first smearing them on a non-stick craft sheet and then misting with water. A mix of Faded Jeans, Hickory Smoke, and Fossilized Amber, might give a similar look.

Paint soft snowy hills next (the other examples might be better than the one on this photo).

Add some shading to the snowy hills, and don't forget to add a little bit of yellow too, which warms up the scene. Make the scenes darker at the front, to add a sense of perspective. I also painted some trees in the far distance.

Now to the stamping. The animals from Tim Holtz Great Outdoors set were inked up first with Faded Jeans, and then I dabbed on a little Hickory Smoke and a little Ground Espresso. Mist about three times with water before stamping. Repeat with the tiny deer from Hero Arts Winter Silhouettes set, but using only one mist of water. I also added some trees from the Great Outdoors set. Paint shadows under the animals to ground them to the scene.

I cut mat board for my covers and glued the watercolor panel to the mat board with Matte Medium. The outer corners were rounded for a finished look. Use  your favourite papers for the inside and cut them just a little bit smaller than the covers. Punch holes with a Crop-a-Dile and bind with rings.

I varied the amount of water in the paint on the different notebooks, which is why the colors are darker on some of them. The darker the colors, the more dramatic the sky. I am not sure which of the notebooks I like the best, but it might be this one, and the reason has to do with a mistake that turned out pretty cool.

This was the last paper that I stamped when doing the white embossing and I pressed too hard on the stamp and got embossing ink in places were it wasn't supposed to be. I removed some of it with a paint brush, but not all of it, and here you can see the cool resist effect of those unplanned areas. They look kind of like clouds, or maybe snowy mountains in the far distance.

I love watercolor stamping, because the result is never exactly the same. Use a piece of scrap paper to mask of the hill in the front, so that it looks like the deer is standing behind the hill.

The bear book also has a dramatic sky. Don't fiddle around with the watercolour paint, instead let the paints blend on their own on the paper and magic happens.

If you are not happy with the stamped impression, you can always go in and add some watercolor paint here and there. I thought the bear needed a bit of the same blue as the sky, since the Faded Jeans wasn't a complete match, so I simply painted some on.

The sentiments also come from the Great Outdoors set. I only used one word from the sentiments, to make the notebooks into winter notebooks and not Christmas ones. This sentiment said 'winter wishes'.

Here's another look at the snowy sky.

Here's another of the deer books, with a background of soft snowy hills.

The blue, brown and grey mixes in a nice way on the stamp.

And here is the last deer book, also with a soft looking sky.

You could add more stamped trees if you want too, or even make them the main feature.

All lined up, the notebooks almost looks like they are part of a continues scene, which wasn't intended at all, but something I discovered when I took these photos.

I hope you will join us this week in our Christmas / Winter Holidays challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by my blog today!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies: 

Tim Holtz GREAT OUTDOORS [ SSS ] Tim Holtz FLURRY AND PINE [ SSS ] Hero Arts Clear Stamps WINTER SILHOUETTES [ SSS ] Winsor Newton COTMAN WATERCOLORS PLUS 12 [ SSS ] Ranger DINA WAKLEY MEDIA Archival Mixed Media Palette [ SSS ] Canson MONTVAL WATERCOLOR 9x12 Pad [ SSS ] Sizzix LITTLE SIZZLES MAT BOARD PACK 6x13 [ SSS ] Neenah Classic Crest 80 LB SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Idea-ology MINI BOOK RINGS [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad FADED JEANS [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad HICKORY SMOKE [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad GROUND ESPRESSO [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium MATTE [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp EMBOSSING POWDER WHITE Fine Detail [ SSS ] Tsukineko Versamark EMBOSS INK PAD [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Tonic GUILLOTINE COMFORT PAPER TRIMMER [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress COLLAGE BRUSH SET [ SSS ] Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER [ SSS ] Hero Arts Rubber Stamp CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCK [ SSS ] Hero Arts Rubber Stamp SMALL BLOCK TRIO CLEAR ACRYLIC [ SSS ] Ranger US HEAT IT CRAFT TOOL United States Use [ SSS ] Ranger EUROPEAN VOLTAGE HEAT IT CRAFT TOOL [ SSS ] We R Memory Keepers CROP-A-DILE [ SSS ] We R Memory Keepers Cropadile CORNER CHOMPER [ SSS ] Prima Marketing ROUND #10 Watercolor Artist Brush [ SSS ] Prima Marketing ROUND #2 Watercolor Artist Brush [ SSS ] Prima Marketing ROUND #4 Watercolor Artist Brush [ SSS ]

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