Weekly Scrapping Tutorial: Prima Paintables Layout

I have always loved the idea of painting - artistic expression and all that.  But the truth is I'm a bit painting impaired. As in, I can't paint. Or draw. I'm afraid my drawing and painting skills are no better than they were when I was in preschool....

Luckily, the folks at Prima have a product that allows me to experience the satisfaction of painting without having to endure the embarrassment frustration I experience when painting freehand.  Their Paintables paper line has a variety of preprinted designs on textured watercolor paper.  You can use them plain, as a black and white patterned paper, or you can decorate them with paint, markers, glitter, etc.  Some people have told me they're a bit intimidated and unsure how to use the papers, so I decided to share my experimentation with it.

I decided to create a layout using the Roxanne paper from the line and dug out my long unused Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils.  To begin I picked out certain flowers I wanted to use and colored them in with the pencils.

You can achieve color gradients by shading darker to lighter and you can also blend two colors (overlap part of the 1st color with the 2nd color, and blend out into the 2nd color) for more detail.  When finished coloring, I painted over the area with a small brush dipped in water.  To keep colors from muddying, rinse brush between colors.

Note: Ultimately, I decided not to use the above bird in the layout, but included the photo to demonstrate painting with the wet brush.

I even experimented with some Glimmer Mist (a shimmery colored spray available in many hues) - after lightly "painting" the butterfly and letting it dry a bit, I cut it out and sprayed it with Glimmer Mist in Robins Egg a few times until I reached the color I wanted.

After cutting out the images I wanted from the paper, I used them as embellishments on my layout - I find that to be a great way to use papers that might be too busy or difficult to use as a whole sheet.  Also, if you mess something up, you don't ruin the whole layout!

A closeup shot:

I was having such a good time painting, I also used Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint on the chipboard letters in the title.  I love that it comes with a brush inside the lid and it is an easy one step process, unlike traditional crackle mediums.

I found myself happily painting all morning - I will never be a fabulous painter, but with Prima's Paintables I can still enjoy myself and color & paint to my heart's content! 

You can find Paintables, Glimmer Mist, and Ranger Distress Crackle Paint in my eBay store.

Also, Prima's blog has a great Paintables Tips and Techniques entry that gives tips on even more ways of decorating Paintables.

Happy painting everyone!