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Tuesday, March 12, 2019

DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder

Hi friends! I am back from an chilly, but lovely walk. I always enjoy breathing fresh air. During March, the Eileen Hull Inspiration Team is sharing projects spring projects. I made a pen holder, featuring birds.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. With Eileen Hull Sizzix dies.

As you might already know, I like to make my own storage containers, and I have quite a few of them on my desk. I have a pretty deep desk, so there is plenty of space. When I used Eileen's new Treasure Box and Stacking Drawer dies to make a Chest of Drawers last month, I thought they would also work great as a pen and tool holder, with three handy compartments. I used very few supplies to make this project, just the dies, mat board, Darkroom Door stamps and watercolor paint. Did you know that mat board is a great surface for watercolor? It holds up very well to the water and is similar to hot-press (smooth) watercolor paper. Just as with hot-press paper, the paint dries fast.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

Die cut the pieces seen here, from white mat board: two side pieces and one base from the Treasure Box, and three dividers from the Stacking Drawer. You need the Extended Cutting Pads, since this is an XL die, but it fits perfectly through the ordinary Big Shot or Vagabond.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Stamp the garden birds.

I used the wonderful Garden Birds Darkroom Door set, designed by Godelieve Tijskens. I love these birds. Stamp them with waterproof ink.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Watercolor the blue tit.

I used a bird book as reference, since I wanted to paint specific birds, but you can of course also paint your own fantasy birds. Mix watercolor paint before starting. Paint loosely, not worrying about perfection or fiddling around too much with the paint. The watercolor paint is vibrant on mat board.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Watercolor birds.

I painted an European Robin, a Eurasian Blue Tit, and a Great Tit, repeating the first two in the smaller versions. These are all some of my favorite birds.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Watercolor the background.

Add quick background colors with golden green and brown, adding a shadow under the birds.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Add grass.

I used the grass stamp from Darkroom Door's Nature Walk set, inked it with Peeled Paint, misted with water and stamped.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Splatter watercolor paint.

For a little more texture, I splattered some dark grey watercolor paint on the background, focusing especially on the ground.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Add grass.

Add sentiments from Nature Walk, and birds from African Trees. I also stamped the names of the birds with alphabet stamps.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Add grass.

Apply a strong adhesive along the flaps.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.Assemble the box.

Adhere the sides together.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Assemble the box.

Adhere the base to the storage holder.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

Assemble the three compartments.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

Place them in the storage holder.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Fill the pen holder with pens and tools.

Fill with pens and tools. I just added random pens and tools from my desk, for the sake of the photo. I will organise it better later, and I always keep my pencils with the tip up. For some reason, I placed them the wrong way around here.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Watercolor blue tit.

The Eurasian Blue Tit is one of my absolute favorite birds, and I see them often outside my window and on my walks. 

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

If you want to, you can paint branches for them to stand on, but for this project, I was happy with them standing on the ground, or it might even be a thick branch.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Watercolor Robin.

The European Robin is another bird I see frequently, and it has such a gorgeous color combination. I painted it very loosely, leaving some of the white of the mat board showing, for highlights.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

The two little birds are cute too, and it looks like the Blue Tit has something to say to the Robin.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Watercolor great tit.

And finally, the Great Tit, which has similar, but also different shades of color compared with the Blue Tit. The shape of this bird stamp fit well with the Great Tit, which is another common bird around here.

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

And let's finish with a lovely sentiment stamp

Layers of ink - DIY Watercolor Birds Pen Holder by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. With Sizzix dies by Eileen Hull.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by here today! I hope you will try to use watercolors on mat board, since it is a lot of fun.

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.




Additional supplies:

Daler and Rowney watercolor paint
Darkroom Door African Trees Set
Hero Arts Printer's Lowercase alphabet stamps

4 comments:

  1. Oooooohhhhh..... Absolutely amazing!!! Love these birds, your water colouring looks awesome and such creative mixing of dies to obtain the pen holder!! Love any detail!! You are always very inspiring and so talented! Thank you very much for sharing your Artwork!

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  2. I love the artwork. Good idea to use the drawer die as dividers.

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  3. Amazing project! I love your realistic coloring!

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  4. This is a lovely little project and would also make a sweet little container for packing some treats in to share with a special person. They could enjoy the little container on their desk or night stand afterwards as well.
    Your choice of the little birds and the pretty painting are perfect for spring. Thank you so much for sharing your lovely project! :)

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Thank you so much for leaving a comment! Happy Crafting!