painting – Try It – Like It

How to Stencil and Blend Paint for Paper Crafting

Soft pastels, beautiful stenciling, and a technique inspired by Dina Wakley come together in this week’s tag tutorial!

I absolutely love the soft pastel colors on this tag. The color palette was inspired by the sticker I selected, which provided the perfect combination of gentle hues and subtle contrast. The technique itself was inspired by a tutorial from Dina Wakley, and I enjoyed adapting the process to create my own version. The layered colors blend beautifully together, creating a dreamy background that complements the focal elements while allowing the pastel tones to shine.

The Deco Earth paint from DecoArt performed flawlessly throughout the project. It applied smoothly, offered excellent coverage, and worked beautifully through the stencil without bleeding or clogging the design. The paint’s rich pigmentation and matte finish added depth and texture to the tag, helping to enhance the soft pastel palette while creating crisp, clean stencil details.

Video Tutorial:

Suggested Materials:

Links are Affiliates AZ – Amazon, SSS – Simon Says Stamps, SB – Scrapbook, O – Other

Art Glitter Glue Shop at: AZ	Buttons Galore and More use Janet10 for a discount Shop at: AZ	DecoEarth Shop at: AZ	Glassboard Shop at: AZ \| O
Glassboard Craft Catcher Shop at: AZ \| O	Gwen Studios at Walmart Shop at: O	Ranger Heat Tool Shop at: AZ	Sizzix Blending Tool Shop at: AZ
Sizzix Intricate Craft Tool Shop at: AZ

How to Stencil and Stencil

A layered stencil background and soft tissue paper make this butterfly tag really stand out.

This week’s tag highlights a fun technique that uses two different stencils layered together to create a truly unique background. By blending the patterns, you add depth and visual interest without overwhelming the design. To tie everything together, similar colors are repeated in the dimensional butterfly, creating a cohesive look that brings the entire tag to life. This is a great technique to experiment with when you want texture, movement, and a custom feel in your paper crafting projects.

After the background was created, a layer of tissue paper was added to soften and tone down the area where the butterfly would be placed. This subtle step helps calm the busy pattern underneath while still allowing the texture and color to show through. It creates the perfect base for the butterfly to stand out without overpowering the rest of the design.

The 3D butterfly is a tutorial with a free printable available here: [butterfly]

Video Tutorial:

The image above shows the iridescence of the Pebeo paint used with the stencil.

Suggested Materials:

Links are Affiliates AZ – Amazon, SSS – Simon Says Stamps, SB – Scrapbook, O – Other

Dynasty Brushes Shop at: AZ	Glassboard Shop at: AZ \| O	Glue Bottles Shop at: AZ	Mod Podge – matte Shop at: AZ \| SB \| O	Pebeo paint Shop at: AZ
Ranger Heat Tool Shop at: AZ	Reptile Glue Shop at: AZ	Spray Bottles Shop at: AZ	Tissue Paper Shop at: O

Granulating Watercolor Tag

See how magical textures are created with granulating watercolor paints.

Granulating watercolors create beautiful blooms of color when activated with water, making each use wonderfully unique. Today, I used them to craft this tag, letting the paint speak for itself.

In the close-up image, you can see how the colors separate and softly blend, creating a one-of-a-kind effect with beautiful texture.

Video Tutorial:

Suggested Materials:

Links are Affiliates
AZ – Amazon, SSS – Simon Says Stamps, SB – Scrapbook, O – Other

Glassboard Shop at: AZ \| O	Glue Bottles Shop at: AZ	HP Paper Shop at: AZ	Kuretake Gansai Tambi Granulating Color Shop at: AZ
Paper Trimmer Shop at: AZ	Reptile Glue Shop at: AZ

Plastic and Watercolor Technique

Tag it Tuesday

This week’s technique is a fun combo of plastic cling wrap and watercolor, and the results are truly one-of-a-kind! After applying watercolor to your surface, simply press a piece of plastic wrap over the wet paint and let it dry. As it dries, the cling wrap creates organic lines and patterns that add amazing visual texture. It’s an easy way to elevate your backgrounds or add interest to cards, tags, and mixed media projects.

Video Tutorial:

Here’s a close-up of the watercolor and plastic wrap technique—just look at that texture! The plastic wrap naturally forms lines, creases, and patterns as it dries over the watercolor, creating a beautifully unpredictable, marbled effect. Each piece turns out totally unique, making it a great way to add depth and interest to your backgrounds or layered elements in your paper crafting.

Start Mandala Painting

How to start dot painting.

Dot Mandala painting is trendy. It isn’t a difficult craft but it does require practice. You can build on your technique and difficulty of imagery. To start you will want some basic craft paint, a few tools for dot-making (which can be found around your house), a pallet, and paper.

The links provided are for your use and may contain affiliate links.
They cost nothing for you to use.
Thank you in advance for supporting this site with its use.

Tools you can use to make dots can be made. Here is a tutorial for making your own ball tool [DIY Ball Tool]. Other items you might want to collect and try:

push pin
end of paintbrush
dry pen
pencil eraser
needle
dowel
knitting needle
crochet hook

Next, you will want to get your paint to the right consistency. Adding a bit of water if needed to make a liquid or runny paint. I am using craft paint from Arteza.

If you don’t want to mix water into your paint you may want to buy paint made for pour painting since it will be a good consistency for dot painting. Arteza has a variety of pour paint sets. There are even color sets that coordinate. And if you are truly just getting started and have no materials, you might be interested in the Arteza Dot Tool Kit. It includes everything you will need except paint.

After practicing your dots and you are now ready to paint a mandala, many people start with a stencil. There are many stencils you can use to create mandalas. If you have a personal cutting machine you can use this SVG file and cut one, to begin with. [madala stencil]

Video Tutorial:

Painting a Postcard

Painting a postcard with edding paint liners.

with Edding

I love the color combination of pink and black. This postcard uses them in a few unique ways to create a whimsical look. The paint was from Edding paint markers. The silver is so metallic even when watered down. I used the paint directly from the pen, with a brush, and splattered it.

At a recent trade show, I was given samples from edding including a postcard pack and two paint pens (edding 5400 acrylic 3D double liner). The paint pens have two ends, one small and one larger. They aren’t a marker tip or a brush but an opening that you can squeeze paint through. Either end of the marker disburses paint contained in the center of the paint pen.

The links provided are for your use and may contain affiliate links.
They cost nothing for you to use.
Thank you in advance for supporting this site with its use.

After painting, I stamped an image over the watered-down painted center of the card. I chose to use a stamping platform because I wanted to gain a rich black stamped image. Stamping the image twice got the desired result.

See how nice the pink (classy mauve) and black work together. The postcard; with the pink paint and black stamping, is pretty and could be finished, I wanted to add the silver paint as well.

Video Tutorial:

How to Foil Your Stamping

Learn how to foil your stamped images with this special technique.

You can make your own foiled embellishments with this fun and relaxing technique. Using DecoFoil and a rubber stamp you create your image, and then use watercolors to finish coloring the images. The foil acts as a resist for the watercolor leaving its glimmer behind.

Many of the items I use in posts are provided by the manufacturers to promote their products.
A special thanks to those brands who sponsor this site.

Materials:

Affiliate links to many of the items used in this process are linked at the bottom of this post for your ease in acquiring them. Thank you for considering using them.

rubber stamp
stamp block
cardstock
DecoFoil
DecoFoil transfer adhesive pen
Derwent Inktense pencils
Yatsutomo Metallic watercolor paints
paintbrush
mini Maker – optional

Since we are using an adhesive product on your stamp, you might want to use an older or less expensive stamp. It is very important to thoroughly clean off your stamp with soap and water after using this technique.

Video Tutorial:

It is really difficult to capture the beauty of these pieces on camera due to the reflective nature of the foil. The watercolor and foil together make for a very unique combination. I think this is one of my favorite techniques to create. Probably more for the enjoyment of the process but the outcome is pretty nice too!

Suggested Materials:

Links are Affiliates
AZ – Amazon, SSS – Simon Says Stamps, SB – Scrapbook, O – Other

Deco Foil
Shop at:
AZ | SSS

Deco Foil Adhesive Pen
Shop at:
AZ | SSS | SB

Derwent Inktense
Shop at:
AZ

Mini Maker
Shop at:
O

Yasutomo Metallic Watercolors
Shop at:
AZ

Swatching a New Watercolor Set

Learn how to swatch a watercolor set.

I love getting new craft materials. I purchased a new watercolor set on Amazon because my daughter has been powering through my supply of watercolor paints. Before diving into painting, I swatch the colors. It doesn’t matter if the material is watercolor, markers, or such, I always swatch the colors and you should too.

I swatch them in the order they appear in the packaging. It might also be nice to swatch them in blending relationships or color family relationships if they aren’t packaged well together.

Amazon link (affiliate): https://amzn.to/2IV8DvT

Why should you swatch? Often colors won’t appear the same in a solid form. Even if you are provided a printed color chart, it might not relate to how you use the colors. This is often seen in the cap colors of markers. Many artists talk about how the cap colors don’t appear similar to the swatched colors.

I keep the swatch sample with the color materials and often refer to it before choosing a color.

Did you find this helpful. Let me know what materials you swatch before usage.

Fall Pumpkin Plaque Decor

A fun festive and a bit scary decor plaque made with Denise Boddey Designs.

This mixed media fall decor plaque was quick and easy to make. It has a little glam and a little bit of scary. Follow along with the tutorial to see what I mean. Special thanks to Denise Boddey Designs for providing the pumpkin cut out for this piece. As a part of the Denise Boddey design team, this is my October project.

Materials:

yellow tissue paper
foam dots
wooden plaque
pumpkin cut out
paintbrush
fall leaves
ribbon bows
matte Mod Podge
white chalk paint
salmon paint
heat gun (optional)

Directions:

I began by using the chalk paint and doing a stain or whitewash technique on the plaque so the grain would show through.
To apply the paint, I wiped it on with a dry baby wipe.

Setting the plaque aside to dry, I painted the pumpkin with salmon-colored paint.

Once those were dry, I decided upon the arrangement, and then began to Mod Podge everything in place.

I used a heat gun to speed up the drying process.
The leaves didn’t want to stick down but as the Mod Podge dried and I tapped on the leaves, they flattened and stuck.
The wood plaque showed where the Mod Podge was even though it was matte, so I covered the entire plaque.

Using a piece of wrinkled yellow tissue paper, I Mod Podged it to the back of the pumpkin.

Using a bit of Fabri-tac, I placed the bows on the top of the plaque.

To adhere the pumpkin to the plaque, I wanted it raised so I used a stack of two pop dots.

Once the plaque was done, I had another thought. What about having the face of the pumpkin glow in the dark!
I painted the tissue to glow in the dark. I really wish I had thought of this earlier, it would have been easier to do!

Glow in the dark is hard to photograph but I think you can get the gist of it here.
This added the scary feature to the plaque that isn’t really expected in the light.

Here is a quick tip for hanging.
Use a soda can tab as the hanger, just glue it to the back of the plaque.

And it is finished and ready to hang for fall!

Suggested Materials:

Links are Affiliates AZ – Amazon, SB – Scrapbook,

DIY Color Experiment

A color experiment using Kool-Aid. Can we craft with it? It ends up being spritzed and painted with.

I recently saw a YouTuber use Kool-Aid to dye paper. I thought the Kool-Aid looked similar to shimmer powder. I also thought instead of staining the paper with kool-aid we could just paint with it. So the experiment began by going to the grocery store and seeing what colors I could find. I basically bought yellow, red, blue, and purple. Each package was about twenty-five cents. So home I went to try out our Kool-Aid colors.

Materials:

Kool-aid
paper
water brush
plastic containers
spritz bottle with water
Eye shadow
Deco-foil

Video Experiment:

I decided the true test would be if you could use the kool-aid colors in crafting. So I made a few card fronts with the kool-aid colors. The version above has all the kool-aid colors and gold foil. A sentiment was stamped onto the bottom with coordinating purple ink.

I used a Xyron sticker maker to apply adhesive to the back of the card front and then adhered it to the front of the folded card base.

And here is the red version. I added a Rinea foil sentiment and a diy flower from another tutorial here on Try it – Like it – Create it. Here’s the link to the flowers if you want to see how to make them: flower embellishments.

Mod Podge – matte Shop at: AZ \| SB \| M	Homeright Heat Gun Shop at: AZ	Ultimate Glow Shop at: AZ	Fabri-tac Shop at: AZ
Chalk paint Shop at: AZ	Salmon paint Shop at: AZ