diy : watercolour stencil art

Today's DIY features my favourite art medium.... watercolours! I seriously LOVE watercolours and if I had to only go with one kind of paint, it would definitely be watercolours. Now, I know what you're thinking, aren't watercolours tricky and hard? NO, it definitely does not have to be. I'll give you some tips throughout this post to help you overcome any fears of this beautiful & dreamy art medium.

{ s u p p l i e s }

- watercolor paper 

(first tip of the day, don't use watercolors on regular computer paper, you definitely NEED the thicker material that watercolor paper provides!)

- good paintbrushes

- watercolour paints!

- cup of water
- a stencil : does this deer head look familiar? ;) for today's DIY I re-used a stencil I had printed off and cut out from my "Bleached Oh Deer Tank Top". Any stencil would work for this project though! I'm thinking elephants for my next one :)

{ i n s t r u c t i o n s } 

1. tape down your stencil to your watercolour paper

2. wet your brush with some water  

(tip #2, do NOT use too much water! make sure to scrape your brush against the sides of your cup or on a paper towel so you don't have an excess of water...too much water results in not only a really faded colour but it will also ruin even your strong watercolour paper)

3. dab your brush in the colour of your choice

(tip #3, choose a palette before hand and stick to a handful of colours for this project...ie. I made two pieces of art, one with warm colours: reds, oranges, yellows, and the other with cool colours: greens, blues, and purples.)

4. feel free to use a palette to mix your colours to get different shades. 

(tip #4, hardened watercolour paints will ALWAYS be darker than the colour you will see when you paint the colour on, so this is also a good way of seeing what the actual colour will be!)

Since I was too lazy to buy frames that would fit my watercolour pieces, I simply used an office clip and a tack to showcase these in our home. Cheap, easy, and lovely!

p.s. ♥ clara