Watercolour Botanical Hot Foil Card with Bokeh Bubble Effect

A project from our live show MY PODCAST - Catch my latest updates broadcast 9th December 2024 · 09/12/2024 · watch it from 26:45

A beautiful card featuring a hand-painted botanical design on hot foil cardstock with a bokeh bubble technique overlay. The design combines watercolour painting with lifted colour effects to create dimensional sparkly circles that make the flowers appear to float off the page.

You will need

Stamps By Me - Hot Foiled Coloring Book - Botanicals - 160223GSEE IT

DOWNLOAD THIS GUIDE (PDF)

Step by step

1. Trim the hot foil page from the book using a guillotine to remove the perforations. ▶ watch 29:00
2. Wet the entire card with clean water using a flat brush to prepare for watercolour washing. ▶ watch 31:00
3. Apply a light wash of yellow watercolour across the wet card, varying the tone in places for depth. ▶ watch 32:30
4. Add darker yellow and coffee-coloured tones to create dimension in the background wash. ▶ watch 33:30
5. Wet individual petals with clean water and use tissue to lift out colour, creating a lifted effect. ▶ watch 37:45
6. Lightly draw circles around the flowers with a watercolour pencil to mark bokeh bubble positions, keeping circles outside the flower design. ▶ watch 40:30
7. Paint clean water inside each marked circle to activate the watercolour underneath. ▶ watch 42:00
8. Use tissue to lift colour out from within the water-filled circles to create the bokeh bubble effect. ▶ watch 43:00
9. Paint the flower petals with white watercolour mixed to a pale grey tone, covering all petal areas. ▶ watch 48:30
10. Drop brown-yellow colour onto the wet white petals to add warmth and detail to the flower centre. ▶ watch 49:00
11. Paint the leaves by wetting them with clean water first, then dropping in green colour to create soft, natural-looking foliage. ▶ watch 51:30
12. Add a touch of light pink to the flower centre by pouncing colour onto the wet card for a delicate accent. ▶ watch 54:00

Tips from the show

• Watercolour always dries back two to three shades lighter than it appears when wet, so be confident applying colour.
• The hot foil will resist watercolour paint, so you can paint freely over the foil lines without worry.
• You can lift colour back out with tissue if you make a mistake whilst the card is still wet.

Written up from the show itself. See every guide from our shows · free how-to guides · watch live on My Telly