Puttering with Finetec Watercolors in my Traveler’s Notebook By Judi Kauffman for the Queen’s Ink

I treated myself to three 6-color Finetec iridescent and pearlescent watercolor palettes (F0603, F0600, F5600) and have been happily puttering with them. I’m going to invest in more next time I’m at The Queen’s Ink - I didn’t get the blue, purple, and green color families yet. I’m going to create my own ‘set’ with an empty tin that holds a dozen colors, sold in individual pans. Empty 6-color tins are also available, as are other pre-selected palettes, but now that I’ve had a chance to experiment I want to come up with a custom array!!!

I highly recommend starting to putter with a single brush so the only variable is the paper, but there are no rules. A water brush might be fun, but I stuck with an angled brush and two jars of water - one to clean the brush and the other to pick up water for activating the cake watercolors to a creamy consistency.

I bought a pad of black watercolor paper but haven’t worked with it yet. My color swatches are painted on 100# black and 803 white cardstock, along with some splotches done directly onto a page in the Kraft paper insert/booklet.

I did a lot of random brushstrokes on black cardstock, too. Some of the pieces ended up in a straight-cut collage in the Traveler’s Notebook, I layered other pieces to make a trio of bookmarks.

Your turn! Begin with one or two colors - or more if you like to have a bunch of options right from the start. Vary the background papers, incorporate rubber stamping and heat embossing and do some coloring. Paint a simple flower or stick with overlapping brushstrokes! Check out the samples that are at the store and keep an eye out for my upcoming projects and tutorials featuring the Finetec watercolors!

Supplies:

• Finetec iridescent and pearlescent watercolors
• Good quality paintbrush
• Black and white cardstock
• Optional: Traveler’s Notebook with insert/booklets of choice