Backporch: Super Saturday at Magenta: Christmas Tree and Homemade Watercolors

Hi! I am over at the Magenta blog today with this post; you can see that here.

I have another Christmas card for you today and it's on a dark background again. I like how the white embossing pops on this background, and also the shimmer paints that my friend Pam Nelson and I made.

First I stamped the Magenta Decorated Christmas Tree using Versamark ink and embossed it in white. I also stamped and embossed the sentiment and embossed in white.

Even though I didn't use watercolor paper, the cardstock I used is fairly heavy duty and I knew that if I didn't use a lot of water I could add my new shimmery watercolors to the ornaments without the paper buckling.

My friend Pam Nelson and I made these paints ourselves, using powdered pigments with mica. The recipe we used for the binder is below

We used our supply of FX powders that we had from Dreamweaver Stencils, plus some that were sent to us (thank you Lynell Harlow) and we used some PearlEx powders as well. There are multiple YouTube videos showing how to make your own watercolors. Pam and I mixed and ground the liquid binder and pigment powders together, using palette knives on Tim Holtz glass mats until they were very smooth. You are sort of trying for the consistency and texture of honey. We tested them on watercolor paper and then loaded the finished paints into half pans to dry. It was a really fun project, and Pam and I did it together every step of the way. Since we used Clove essential oil as a preservative, our paints smell like cloves, which we like. There are other kinds of preservatives you can use too.

Pam made the background for the lids of our watercolor tins, using mineral paper and Nuance. The tins previously held mint candies, and they were collected to use for something like this. I Zentangled over the background design and we affixed the paint name that we decided on (from several contributed by a friend: Twinkle Tones. We printed the design on sticker paper.

It's very hard to get the shimmer in the watercolors to shop up in a photo. Do you see the ornament that I missed in this picture? I found it before it was finally finished, lol!

This Magenta Christmas Tree stamp was perfect for these paints. I hope you like it.

Magenta Products Used: