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….
***
This is what you will need:
Watch the slide show video to see the basic “How To” and follow the instructions below to create our own design.
I sketched out a simple poinsettia design, and some other ideas would be a wreath, ornament, star, evergreen tree, Christmas Tree, Christmas Stockings, Wrapped box gift, or ??? This project is not limited to Christmas, think of how beautiful hearts would be for Valentine’s Day, Easter Eggs, Tulips or Bunnies and of course fun spooky Halloween pumpkins and more would be.
Design & Transfer:
-
Draw out your design – keep it to simple shapes.
-
Outline design with Sharpie Pen – this helps refine your simple shapes and gives you a thicker line to gauge around for the ink to stick to on the outline your design in the ink.
-
Rub back side of paper with your design with a soft leaded pencil (or you can use
Saral Graphite Transfer Paper to place on top of Safety Kut block and beneath the paper with your design).
-
Place design pencil side down (or transfer paper down between block & design) on top of Safety Kut block.
-
Take the capped Sharpie pen and press hard on your design tracing the design you made with your Sharpie pen to transfer the graphite from pencil (or Saral Paper) ( or Saral Paper) onto Safety Kut block as you trace out your design.
-
Lift a corner and make sure your design is transferring onto the Safety Kut.
-
Finish rubbing spoon over the Sharpie design to complete the transfer of your design.
Gauging and cutting your design:
-
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.
-
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.
-
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!
-
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.
-
Keep gauging away until you see the design appear.
-
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.
Printing:
-
Squeeze out some of the DANIEL SMITH Water Soluble Ink onto a glass palette or use white stoneware plate.
-
Using your 4″ Soft Speedball Brayer, roll over the ink to coat your brayer.
-
Roll inked brayer over your gauged design on the Safety Kut block and ink well.
-
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.
-
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!
-
You may want to do several test prints until you feel comfortable with inking the block, and printing the paper.
-
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.
-
Keep printing til you are done!
-
The prints will need to dry at least 24 hours (depending on the humidity) before hand painting with Watercolor.
-
You can do some small touch ups with your Sharpie pen to fill in small areas that the ink missed.
Hand Painting with Watercolor:
-
Decide on which DANIEL SMITH Watercolors you will be using and squeeze them out on your palette, just a little bit of paint.
-
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! : )
-
Use the watercolor full strength, or dilute to the color strength you desire and paint.
-
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.
-
Allow to dry and you are finished!
Have fun with this
Blockprint Cardmaking Project and to find for more ideas for
Handmade for the Holidays Art Projects please click on the link.
Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….
~Deborah Burns
Follow
DANIEL SMITH on
Twitter
Become a
DANIEL SMITH Fan on
Facebook
/0.jpg" alt="YouTube Preview Image" />
/0.jpg" alt="YouTube Preview Image" />
