Video Guest of the Month: Julia Altermann!

Welcome to our last video guest post of the year! We've had such a blast having amazing designers throughout the year and today's guest is no different! Julia is an amazing colorist and she created stunning CAS cards! Let's give her a warm welcome!

Hello everyone! This is Julia from Just One More Card and I’m honored to be a guest designer for Altenew this month! I love the amazing images that Altenew puts out as stamps because I can use them for all kinds of coloring techniques. Today, I want to show you how I did some no-line watercoloring using the Poinsettia & Pine stamp set.

First of all, you can use this technique with all sorts of coloring mediums: I selected watercolor because that is easiest for me, but of course you can use Copics or pencils just as well. The trick is to stamp your images with an ink that is light enough to blend into your coloring so you won’t have those stark black outlines. For watercoloring, using Antique Linen Distress Ink is a great choice. I also use other colors because they’d match what I wanted to use anyway, but if you only buy one color, you can use Antique Linen for everything and later color over with your “actual” colors.

It took me quite some time to get the cone right since I applied three or four shades. Just remember: this isn’t a contest. No one is going to grade you on how ‘perfect’ your coloration is, or how life-like. Remember to have fun, and to take artistic license—so what if each sections isn’t quite right in terms of lights and shadows? I guarantee you, 99.9% of possible recipients of such a card will not notice it. Instead, they’ll be amazed at the time and effort you put into this, and they’ll feel special and treasure this card.

As with all watercolor, work in sections that are not adjacent to each other to prevent colors to bleed into each other. It might test your patience—it surely always tests mine—but you’ll save yourself a lot of frustration by just being patient. To get the nice contrast, also dare to go a bit darker in the shadows than you’d normally do. Dark shadows and light highlights will help to make your image pop and appear more interesting.

Lastly, don’t forget the finishing touches. I splattered some color on my piece, just to increase the ‘rustic’ feel of it, and then added some faux snow with my white Sharpie. You can use any opaque white gel pen, you could use white Nuvo drops after the coloration has dried, or even white embossing paste.

Thank you so much for stopping by today, and thank you to Altenew for having me! Cheers!

Please see below for a few of supplies used in this project:

– Altenew Poinsettia & Pine
– Altenew Holiday Wishes
– Hahnemuehle Aquarellkarton
– MISTI
– Sharpie White marker
– Inktense Pencils
– Velvet Black Brush #2
– DaVinci Brush 3/0 Forte Synthetic