Watercolor Wonder Crayons

I've never been a fan of watercolor pencils because I just don't have the gift for laying down the right amount of color and then blending them perfectly. Mine always look too scribbled. I am a big fan of the watercolored look, but my pencils just weren't working well for me. So I was excited when I first got my hands on a set of Stampin' Up!'s Watercolor Wonder Crayons. But it turns out that I tend to use them the exact same way as I do my pencils. When I apply them directly to paper, I end up with a scribbled look. What's a girl to do?

Well, a thought came to me: What if I took my little paint brush to the tip of my crayon and pulled off some of the color directly? Then I could apply the color from the crayons gently to my paper in just the right spot! So I tried it.

Here are the results of my tests using this method:

Copyright Stampin' Up!® 1990-2006

I like how they came out--just like regular watercoloring! But I discovered something about the way these crayons work that I like even better than traditional watercoloring: The crayon “ink” can be moved around in the image, even after drying! It doesn’t soak in deeply like regular ink and water would. I had to drop my paintbrush and run out the door when a friend stopped by to pick me up yesterday. I had just laid down a think layer of Night of Navy on those blue flowers above. This morning, I returned to my craft area and picked up a wet brush. I was able to spread out the Navy and blend it just as if 24 hours had not gone by. Amazing! And so helpful if you are like me and make mistakes when you watercolor.

Hope you find this tip to be helpful! Let me know if you have any questions about these Watercolor Wonder Crayons. I'd be glad to help.