Easy Block Print Cardmaking Project - Painting in the Poinsettia leaves with DANIEL SMITH Sap Green Watercolor

Want a high impact and easy Printmaking Project, that you can make great cards with?  Well, here you are….

 

Easy Printmaking! Making Cards with Safety Kut blocks, DANIEL SMITH Water Soluble Ink, DANIEL SMITH Watercolors and Strathmore Cards!  This project was inspired by Molly Hashimotos Block Printing demo during our Printmaking Event Weekend in October.

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This is what you will need:

  

1. Safety Kut blocks 4×6 – 369 020 001
2. DANIEL SMITH Water  Soluble ink: lamp black  – 284 220 00 
3. Speedball Linoleum Cutter Set 1  – 530 060 002 
4. Speedball 4″ soft Brayer – 530 060 018   
5. Strathmore Watercolor Cards (10 qty with envelopes) 5×6-7/8 -  220 230 011

   DANIEL SMITH Watercolors – for this we used “Holly Berries” Triad ( Perylene Red , Sap Green , Iridescent Gold ) plus Hansa Yellow Medium 

6. Watercolor brushes
7. Plate or palette to roll out ink
8. Soft leaded pencil – or Saral Graphite Transfer Paper
9. Sharpie fine point pen
10. Sturdy spoon

 

Watch the slide show video to see the basic “How To” and follow the instructions below to create our own design. 

 

 

Design & Transfer:

1. Insert the smallest tip of the Speedball Lino Cutter into the handle, and begin “pushing” the tip onto your Safety Kut block to gauge out your design.
2. You will want to outline the basic shapes by gauging OUTSIDE or INSIDE the thick outlines – remember where you don’t gauge away the block the ink will stick and print.  You want to preserve that thick line.
3. Tip for choosing the direction to gauge, follow the general outline, or as I did with the petals and leaves of the poinsettia, gauge in the direction of the PATTERN of the leaf, or if (for instance) water, you would gauge the motion of the water flowing downstream and around rocks.  Remember to keep turning your Safety Kut block around so that you are gauging AWAY from you so you don’t gauge yourself!
4. For larger areas to gauge, switch your tip on the Speedball lino cutter to a larger tip.  Again, when gauging, think of how you want the lines of the gauge to show, for the poinsettia background, I gauged AWAY from my design all the way around the poinsettia shape.  Keep turning the Safety Kut block so that you are also gauging AWAY from yourself. 
5. Keep gauging away until you see the design appear. 
6. TIP – Don’t gauge away too much, you want to see the lines from your gauge marks.  You can always gauge away more if after you do a test print you decide too, but you CAN’T undo too much gauging.

1. Squeeze out some of the DANIEL SMITH Water Soluble Ink onto a glass palette or use white stoneware plate.
2. Using your 4″ Soft Speedball Brayer, roll over the ink to coat your brayer.
3. Roll inked brayer over your gauged design on the Safety Kut block and ink well.
4. Make a Test Print onto any plain white paper:  Lay paper down, carefully place inked block ink side down onto paper and press down hard.  Then keeping them together, CAREFULLY pick up them both up and turn over so that the paper is now on top, don’t let them slip or your image will be blurry. Take your sturdy spoon, and rounded side down on to paper, press down and rub the paper to burnish the ink onto the paper to get a good print.  You may want to carefully lift one corner to check and see how well the ink is printing onto the paper.
5. When you are satisfied that you have burnished in the ink, carefully pull the paper away from the inked block and reveal your Test Print!
6. You may want to do several test prints until you feel comfortable with inking the block, and printing the paper.
7. Now do the same with your Strathmore Watercolor Card.  You may find that you will need to ink your block more (tip rolling fast takes up ink, rolling slow lays down more ink) since Watercolor paper has different absorbency and have to press harder and longer with your spoon since the Watercolor Paper is thicker too.
8. Keep printing til you are done!
9. The prints will need to dry at least 24 hours (depending on the humidity) before hand painting with Watercolor.
10. You can do some small touch ups with your Sharpie pen to fill in small areas that the ink missed.

1. Decide on which DANIEL SMITH Watercolors you will be using and squeeze them out on your palette, just a little bit of paint.
2. Begin painting in the areas you want with the colors you have chosen.  It’s kind of like coloring when you were a kid, keep within the lines!  :  )
3. Use the watercolor full strength, or dilute to the color strength you desire and paint.
4. You can individualize the cards by subtly changing the color strength, in the technique in the way you paint the watercolor, or by choosing different colors for the cards.
5. Allow to dry and you are finished!