Whimsical Floral Wreaths: Painting Handmade Greeting Cards in Watercolor

1. Whimsical Wreaths: Introduction: Hi friends. It's Lisa Hetrick. Welcome to my skill share class. We're going to have so much fun together painting whimsical wreaths and handmade cards. So come on in and let's get started in this class. I will walk you through all of the supplies that I'll be using and encourage you to use supplies that you already have. We'll also walk through brushes and different kinds of brushes that you could pull from your stash. We're going to talk a little bit about card making and the supplies that you'll need to build your card. I've supplied a project hand out so that we can walk through each technique together, and we'll also be talking about color palettes, mood boards and painting color. Intuitively, I'll walk you through every single flower and leaf element to build our wreath together, and I break it down into simple steps that you can do alongside me will also cover a lot of different filler techniques for your wreath and some tips and tricks along the way. I'll also be talking about how you can build your color palette for the project based on the mood or the feeling that you want the wreath tohave, I'll be sharing some inspiration and talking a lot about the color mood boards and will build are cool or warm palette. Together. We'll paint the final project together, step by step, and I'm breaking down different components of the wreath and talking a little bit about design, composition and how to build your wreath in a very symmetrical way. And it'll all come together to our final project. Where will putting will be putting together the three D elements and creating and assembling the final card together? I'll show you how to put some finishing touches on the final project. Teoh. Give it a little bit of glow and a little bit of extra love. There's also a onus download envelope template so that you can create a companion envelope that will go with your final card. I know we're going to have a lot of fun together, so come on in and let's get started 2. Whimsical Wreaths: Gathering Your Supplies: Okay, let's get started with talking about supplies and details for the class. We're going to start with high quality paper. So I am going to share three brands of paper here that I love to use with my watercolor projects because there are 100% cotton, so I would recommend using the paper that you have in your stash. But just know that some of your results may vary for the project based on your paper. Now, if you're using 100% cotton, you're going to get similar results to what I have and what I'll be teaching in the class. So this is from B paper company. It's one of my favorite watercolor papers for paper crafting projects. It comes in six by nine. It also comes in some sketchbooks. I love it. It's 100% cotton. It's £140. Here is my, um, ultra favorite. This is arches or are sh is. A lot of people call it different things, but it is 100% cotton. This is a block of paper, and I love it's £140. This is also another cold pressed paper that is 100% cotton, and it's called the Law Aqua Aqua Row. Like Hanson, it's the heritage ran, and it's a really nice brand. So these air three really good brands off 100% watercolor paper, cold press that is okay, so choosing your water color now and some of my other classes, I go into deeper dives about watercolor. But for this class, I want you to pull the water colors that you have in your stash or something that you are itching to play with and work with. I am going to be using these Daniel Smith hand watercolors for this class, but I'm also showing here some radiant, concentrated watercolors, some liquid watercolors and also some tube watercolors so you could use any of thes kinds of water colors for this class, and you can achieve the same results. I also have a tube of white wash paint here, and wash is a an opaque watercolor, and I'm going to be using that towards the end of the class for some of the finishing details, and I'll get into it really in deep as we get to the end of the class. I also have a unit ball signal White gel pen here. So that becoming handy toe have that if you don't have white wash pain. So again, I'm going to be focusing on using these Daniel Smith Pan watercolors for the class. You can use any pan set that you have, um, for this class. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about some brushes and other essentials you're going to need. You have to. I have two things of water that I'm gonna be using in the class. I have. Ah, a little spray bottle here with some water as well. Ah, micro fiber towel that I used to wipe off my brush. Um, I have a clean water and then to clean waters set up right now, but one will be clean. One will be dirty. I have two different sets of brushes here. Now, my favorite brushes that I enjoy using for watercolor or the silver black fell that brushes that I'm showing here on the left. But I also have some of these Windsor Newton longer handle brushes on the right. But we're going to be using brushes that are smaller in size. So I've got a one a 24 and a six. We're gonna be predominantly using a size six for this watercolor wreath paper crafting project because our project is gonna be sized smaller. So we're working in a five by five size. I also have this Ah, script liner brush or the one I'm going to show you from Windsor Newton is called. It's also called a rigger brush. So this brush is in a long gated brush that is really handy toe have to do. The twigs and Berries that were going to be doing is part of the techniques for the class. So this is the silver black velvet line. You can use any watercolor brush brand that you enjoy. I'm just sharing these two here. This is the artist watercolor Sable brand from Windsor Newton. And this is a size one. Um, actually, that's the rigger brush. Apologize for that. And I've got a couple rounds here, so I have a four, and, um, a one and a six. Now, these are longer handled brushes. So sometimes I will pull out a longer handled brush if I want to, um, kind of work at a distance instead of working up close a lot of times with the shorter handled brush, I'm will pull in and work a lot close. More like a pen or pencil. Okay, so now let's move on and talk about some of the optional things for class and these air of metallics and iridescence. So in addition to these these supplies that I'm showing here, I have, um you're going to need some scissors because we're going to be doing a little bit of fussy cutting. I have some iridescent medium here, which is from Windsor Newton, but you can use any kind of iridescent or glittery like medium that you prefer. This is another set from fine tack. There are several different kinds of sets on the market, so you're just kind of used what you have in your stash, but we are going to be doing some glowy glowy effects at the end of the project. Okay, so now I'm going to talk a little bit about the card making supplies that you're going to need because our final project is going to be taking the whole reef project and assembling it into a card. And we have this three D banner element that we're going to be working on together as well . So you're going to need a piece of your favorite white card stock cut two of 10 by five. So are finished. Size is going to be five by five. So it's 10 across by five down so and scored at the five mark in the middle. You're going to need a piece of watercolor paper cut to a five by five because we're going to do all the work on that paper and then adhere it to the card stock. I'm going to be using the B paper company watercolor paper, and you're also going to need 1/4 inch strip cut out from the water colored paper to create the banner, the three D van or element. Okay, so let's go ahead and move on to the next module. 3. Whimsical Wreaths: Practice Handouts: Okay, so in every class that I teach, I supply you with a practice hand out. So we're going to be going through every step of building the wreath in the class, and I've supplied to practice hand out for you to go ahead and print out on your favorite watercolor paper. And so when we go through the lessons, you can paint each piece on the practice handout, and then you'll have it as a reference when you go back to create more projects with it. So I've got a complete breakdown of the flowers and the pedals and the twigs and the Berries that were going to be creating together. I also have a breakdown of the color palette, the inspiration, the mood board and all of the different things that were going to cover together. So this is sized at 8.5 by 11. It's available to you for download, and you can just go ahead and download it on your favorite watercolor paper, and we can paint along together also in the downloads. I have a bonus download for you with an envelope template that you can print on the your favorite watercolor paper or your favorite card stock print out, and then we're going to be using that at the end. When we put together the project, I'm going to be talking a little bit more about this envelope. But I've provided that template for you. If you want to print it out on your favorite watercolor paper, you can do all the techniques that we are doing in the class and paint your own envelope for this five 55 chord that we're going to make together. So go ahead and download all of the materials for the class in the practice handouts and let's get started on the next module. 4. Whimsical Wreaths: Painting the Flowers: Okay, We're going to get started on painting the flowers and the flower elements for our wreath project. So if you go ahead and pull out your practice hand out, we're going to be focused on this top half of the first sheet, and then the next module will be focused on the second half of this practice. Hand out when we do the leaves and foliage. So let's go ahead and get started with the four Pedal the flower. Okay, I really enjoy this flower because it's kind of a universal petaled flower, but also has this look and feel of a hydrangea. So in I love hydrangeas. So let's talk about the mechanics of building this four petaled flower. I'm just gonna go ahead and, um, missed my hands at here, and I'm going to be working with two primary colors. I have my paintbrush that is a size six, and that's the bush that I'm going to be using predominantly throughout the whole project. You'll see me change up some of the brushes, and I will definitely let you know which size I've changed too. So, for colors, I really just want you to experiment with the colors you have, so I will share which colors I am using along the way. And in the next module after foliage, we're really going to get into color palettes and mood boards and inspiration. But right now I'm using ultra marine blue and quinacrine own rose and a mixing those two colors together to create just a nice cool purple to create this four petaled flower, and we are going to be painting everything in this project with the brush. We're not going to be drawing anything ahead of time. So with the tip of your number six brush, you're going to start at the bottom and paint up and out in a way and back down and around to the beginning point to create this diamond like shape sort of in a long, gated, diamond like shape. But that shape is really soft around the edges. We're not creating a really harsh diamond look. We're creating some really soft diamond shape, and it can be a little bit wonky. Once I could be a little more elongated and than the other. But this technique that we're doing here is also wet on dry, so the brushes, wet and there's wet paint on the brush, but we are going to apply it to the paper that is dry. So we're not adding water to the paper. First. We so it's really just working with the brush and the paint and just a little bit of water . So I'm gonna go back and forth here with the two colors and just kind of mix up the purple tones that I'm going for. And again, you could do this in any color. We're just practicing the techniques to build the elements in order. Teoh build all of our reef elements together. OK, so right now I am just painting in four lines and thes air going to be my anchor points for drawing in the along gated diamond shape so that first shape is in there, and I just kind of made it kind of small on. And I use that line that had drawn first with the brush as my anchor point, and you noticed that I haven't gone back in and added more paint of just using what I have on the brush. And now here's the kicker. We're going to turn the paper. Often people will get frustrated because they don't trying to paint it all in one where the papers just vertical turned the paper in the direction that you want toe work. If you're left handed, you'll see. And since I am left hand, you'll see me turning my paper towards the right in into, like, clockwise around so that I can build the pedals. If you're right handed, you might do it counter clockwise. It's whatever preference, but turn your paper so that you can use those anchor points that you've created for the pedals to create this a long, gated diamond shape. And because the diamond shape you can see in the pedal that it has that diamond shape towards the top on the middle, and then we're pulling it down and elongating it where the pedals meat. So you can see here also that my, um, pedals air all kind of different shapes, and that's what makes the floral kind of unique and organic and different. And we're just using the brush to paint on the flower so you don't need any drawing experience. If you feel more comfortable, you can use a really light pencil and kind of create those shapes first and then use your paint and paint them in. But you can easily do this with the tip of your brush and just use the tip of your brush like you would a pen or a pencil. And just draw these elongated diamond shapes out to create this four petaled flower. And you can see that it's coming together, pulling it dick together in the center here. And I'm just dropping a little bit of ultra marine blue and here just kind of playing around. So while the paper is wet because you've applied, the paper applied the paint to the paper, you can drop in other color and just kind of play around and when we get to our final composition, were really going to get into it. But you could see mixing those two colors together gives you really nice variation off violets and purple tones. Just so pretty OK, so again, this is the number six brush. If I were to grab a smaller brush and I'm going Teoh show you, I'm going to grab a number two here and paint a petal over to the right with the same color combination, but just to kind of show you that if you feel like you wanna paint smaller, you can use a smaller brush. Or you can just use the number six brush and just really use the tip of the brush. So really, you it's very possible for you do this entire project with one brush because you can see here that even with this number two that my paddle looks very similar to what I just created with the number six brush. So you don't need every single brush that's out there. Unless you really feel like the smaller brushes air gonna give you a lot more detail. I always recommend having a smaller brush. Four details, Um, but you could use the number six brush the whole entire project and just really use the tip of the brush and use the belly of the brush. And we're gonna talk through Ah, lot of that as we move on with the different techniques so you can see here with the number two. I'm just adding a little bit off color in here and just kind of playing with it. The number to brush does allow me. It's the tip is a little bit sharper, so it does allow me to kind of go in and refine some of those edges a little bit more around the pedals. So I'm really loving the way this looks Now. This flower would be the shape of it is if we were looking at it head on. So my hand gestures here are showing you that it's just kind of looking at the flower shape head on, um, it in that one dimension. So it's kind of fun. Okay, so let's go ahead and move on to the brushstroke flower. Okay, so this flower is called the brushstroke flower, and it's a flower that I do often. It's very graphic, and we're going to do a technique that if you've taken other classes with me before, you have heard me say this technique before, we are going to do a technique called brush dancing. Now I'm just working with the same two colors that I have been working with, and mixing up a little ultra marine blue and a little bit of quinacrine own rose here to just create some kind of purples and just playing here. Now I'm using my number six bush and we're going to go ahead and create this four petaled flower. But it has that brush stroke graphic quality to it, and it really does. It's a really loose flower, So I'm putting some anchor points in here, and I'm just kind of sketching out a few anchor points for my for my brush. And I'm ending the brush the belly of the brush and swooshing it up and out and then coming back down with the brush in just the tip of it and just kind of swooshing it back down to create that graphic look. So I've got the belly of the brush, swooshed it up and out and then swooshed the tip of the brush down and like like you were sweeping to create that graphic look, and it kind of brings the whole pedal back. So you've got this open line, looked to the brush to the brushstroke, and you get this really graphic looking petal and what I'm doing here with the tip of the brush is called what I call rush dancing. I'm dancing the brush on top of the flower and just creating these strokes. He's really thin strokes that helped give the flower this graphic quality to it. So it's a sweeping motion back and forth, and the technique is done with the wet brush wet paint on dry paper, and you can add a little bit water here and there. It's not a super super wet technique, but it is a really easy going flower that creates a little bit more of a graphic. Look in your composition and yeah, let's do it again. Okay, so I've got the tip of the brush and I'm ending my brush down suits. So the whole belly of the brush gets to be a part of the show here and then just swooshing it out. And then when I come back down into the center to make the other side of the paddle, I am sweeping my brush tip back and forth to create that graphic look with the brush stroke effect. And okay, I'm gonna do it again here, and you could see that my brush is getting a little bit dry because this is 100% cotton paper and it's super thirsty. So sometimes you're gonna have to dip your brush back in the water back in the peat to get it nice and juicy. again could see it's getting a little dry there. So I'm going to get back in and to get that a little bit wet and do a little brush dancing here and and sweep it back and forth like that. Brushes dancing across the paper and then the end result. Here is this really fun, whimsical brush stroke e graphic flower, and it's super simple to create. You don't need to draw anything ahead of time just dropping a little color in here while the, um, while the painting is still a little bit wet, just dropping a little bit of fun color in here just to add just playing around here. But that brush dancing technique where I'm just going back and forth and sweeping and using the belly of the brush and the tip of the brush to create this graphic look to really fun, whimsical flower. Okay, so let's go ahead and move on to the four pedal angled flower, and this is more of a flower that has a little bit off dimension because it is angled so you're only seeing three. The pedals and the fourth pedal is the one that's closest to you, so technically from the perspective, we're looking inside off the flour and this is a really fun flower that can be a little bit challenging at first to make, but it creates a lot of variation in your wreath. So you're going to use I'm using a number six again, and this whole flower is built with the belly of the brush. So I've got the tip of the brush here, and I'm bending my brush down, using the belly of the brush to create the pedal. And I did that once. And then I'm gonna go ahead and do it again and then do it again for the third. So I've created three pedals and now I'm gonna go ahead and create that pedal that's closest to us. So I'm bending the tip of the brush and I'm swooshing up underneath the three that I have created and that cretin a crescent lake shape. You can see that crescent like shape there, and that creates that pedal that were really only seeing the outer edge of so it enables us to look inside of the flower and it creates this angled flower. So we're really seeing the front of the flower we're looking inside. So we're gonna build some of the stamens and some of the details inside the flower, and it creates this great little filler flower piece that works really well in any of your compositions that you might dio. But it really is really fun to put into our res composition. So I'm just taking a little bit of indigo color here. And the, um Russia's wet and the papers went, and I'm just dropping a little bit of color here in the center so that you can see that we're looking kind of into the pedal. And then, um, I'm gonna go ahead and create another one so that you can see here. I've got a little bit of quinacrine rose here, just a little bit of water, and I'm creating those three pedals and then swoosh, creating that crescent like look there in front of the three that I created. It's just that swoosh. Now you could do it from left to right. I'm because I'm left handed. I tend to do things from right to left, and then we're gonna drop in a little bit of that indigo color right in the center. There just kind of play around with building the stamens in the center. And this is a really, really sweet, petite little, um, filler flower. That's just so much fun to do with your wreath projects. Okay, so let's go ahead and move on to the four pedal filler flower. And this one's kind of fun, because we're going to be, um, working off of the flower that we just created with the angle flower. But we're gonna play a little bit more with creating the stem as well. This is a really simple flour to create. You're going to use a number six brush again using the tip of the brush and then Ben being the brush to use the whole belly of the brush, nesting those three puddles together to create that Superfund little whimsical flower piece . And I'm grabbing a little bit of green here. This is serpentine green, and I'm just gonna go ahead and create thestreet m and a little bit of the bottom of the flower here and notice that I've mixed the colors to some of that quinacrine roses mixing with the serpentine green, and I'm just putting a little bit of that color in there and playing with it with the brush and just pulling it down into the stem to create this three pedal filler flower. And this is just a really fun flower. You can play with all of the different colors that you're going to be dropping in, and it's super easy to build because you're just using the tip of the brush and then ending the brush to create the hole that we used the whole belly of the brush to create that pedal , that sweet little puddle. You can see that I'm dragging it down a little bit to create that tear drop like shape, and it's just so pretty. OK, so let's take a look at all of the flowers that we created. We've got the four petal flower, the brush stroke flower, that super graphic, and we have the the four pedal angled flower that creates a little bit of dimension and then the filler flower. And you can see here in the final composition how they've just been integrated in different parts of the wreath to create some really fun looks. Okay, so let's go ahead and move on to the next module 5. Whimsical Wreaths: Painting the Leaves, Twigs + Berries: Okay, so in this module, we're going to talk about painting the foliage, so we're just gonna dive right in. But we're going to be working from your project. Hand out the bottom half of the hand out as we walk through these six techniques. So this first, we're going to start off with the brush stroke leaf, and we're going to be using amusing number six again. I'm just going to go ahead and dip it in here to a little bit of serpentine green and put some of that color down on my palette here and this. This technique is a lot of fun. It's a really super simple brushstroke leaf were using the entire belly of the brush, some using the tip of the brush right now use the whole belly of the brush goat up and out , and then come back down with just the tip of the brush. So you're using the whole belly of the brush and then coming back down with the tip of the brush and you create this really kind of organic open line leaf that is just adds a lot of extra great texture and dimension to your wreath project. and it is a super, super simple breastroke Grethe to create. So you can create different sizes and shapes of this by how much pressure you put on the belly of the bush. So you can see here that I've created three different kinds of sizes with just the belly of the brush and just a number six brush here. So I'm totally digging this. There's three different sizes now, if you really wanna have a lot of fun with this, you can use different, um, different size brushes like an eat in a 10 or 12 to get really, really big big leaves from the belly of the brush. But this technique is super simple, and you conduce Oh, it with any size brush. Now I've grabbed a number two here so that I could kind of show you what I mean by using different sizes brushes. So here's a number two, and I've used the whole belly of the brush and then just came back down to use the tip of the brush to create the back end of the of the leaf, and you can see that the belly of the brush on the number two just kind of creates a smaller leaf element super super simple brush stroke technique leaf that you're gonna find yourself using over and over again. Okay, so let's go ahead and move on to the next piece of foliage, and that is the long oval leaves. And it is exactly what it sounds like. I'm just gonna go ahead and dip my brush into some of this serpentine green from Daniel Smith, and I'm going to kick Ain't, um some stems. So I'm going to start from the bottom here with the tip of my brush and just kind of swoosh , um, upward and just kind of flick out from left to right till I can create the, um the the stems of this pretty particular piece of foliage. So on the tips of the stem here, I'm just gonna go ahead and create an oval shape with the tip of my brush and then drop in a little bit of color into the shape. So we're using that flicking motion to create the stem and then just using the tip of the brush to paint an oval shape on to the end of the stem. And when you nest, those together, you can create just kind of this really interesting oval leaf foliage peace. Now you can also use the tip of the brush and just a part of the valley of the brush to create that teardrop shape so that you can go back in and round it out and make it a little more oval. So using the belly of the brush there and then just taking the tip of the brush and going back around it to create that oval shape and always drawing it back into the stem element that you created when you flicked your brush. And then you create this kind of really fun filler piece that when it's nested together in the final wreath, it just creates some extra texture and dimension for the whole wreath. So I'm just using that belly of the brush again here and showing you how I just used the tip of the brush and went around the edges and rounded it out into that oval old teardrop. He likes shape to create that long oval leaf. So super simple foliage just a lot of fun to create. Okay, so let's go ahead and move onto the next one and that is nest. It leaves and dots. And this is a really fun filler piece, and it kind of builds off of the long oval leaf piece. We're gonna create that nested look that we created there. So I've gone ahead and done some flicking here. So I just went from bottom to top of my paper and just used the tip of my brush and flicked some little stems out. And now I'm just using the tip of my brush and dot putting dots all up the side of the stem and back down the other side of the stem and you can mix up your colors here and change it up a little bit. I'm just using the serpentine green and adding these little dots And the beautiful thing about the dots is that they're not all the same shape. So they give you that illusion that they could be buds or they could be flowers that are opening, but they just really create a nice filler element. Uhm, for your wreath piece. So I've gone in with a little bit of a lighter green here, and I'm just kind of filling in some of those other spaces, those negative spaces to kind of fill it in a little bit more with a little bit of a two tone green. Look here, and you can see how that the shape is starting to come together. It's got that nested leaves, and we're using those dots to create that illusion of it being uninterested in piece of foliage. So when it's nested together, creates a lot, a lot of texture and dimension with your other wreath elements. Okay, so let's go ahead and talk about the next one, which is eucalyptus like filler, because we're not going to be painting a realistic eucalyptus. But this is we're talking about the shape and the look and the feel of a eucalyptus. So again I started from the bottom, and I just swooshed up to create that longs elongated stem. And now I'm just nesting circular images. So just taking the tip of my brush and painting out circles off of the edge of the stem to create this shape this circle shape. But it's it can be a little bit wonky or a little bit flat looking. It doesn't have to be a perfect circle, and it's creating this eucalyptus like filler piece for our wreath, and I've just using the very, very tip of the brush. So I've got my number six here. If you want to use a smaller brush, you can. If you have a larger brush, you're just using the tip of the brush to create this thes circular type leaves that kind of have this eucalyptus like Look to it. Now, if you nested a couple of these colors together like I'm just adding a little bit of quinacrine own rose to the centers. I'm just playing around here. But you could nest a couple of these circle shapes and vary their sizes and nest them together to create an even more interesting filler piece. And because eucalyptus is kind of flat and sometimes a little bit wonky in its shape, this is a really fun filler flower to no filler leaf and foliage shape to use for a wreath composition. So you can see that it's super simple to create because I'm just creating a circle and it doesn't have to be a perfect circle. You're just painting it with the tip of your brush and creating that circle like effect. OKay, this is fun One. This next one is jagged edged leaves. So I'm gonna go ahead and add a little bit of serpentine green to my palette here. And I'm just going to start from my bottom with the tip of my brush and swoosh up to create the stem. That's going to be the home for the jagged edge leaves that I'm creating here. So I'm nesting them together. So what I'm doing is I've got a brush here that's full of color, and I am using the belly off the brush and nesting together this shape. So I'm starting from the bottom. I'm gonna go ahead and do it again. I'm starting from the bottom here, and I've got my green color and I'm going to go ahead and create another one. So I'm just nesting using the whole entire belly of the brush and creating these pedal like shapes that are nested together. But their edges become very jagged when you nest them together. So it creates this jagged edge leaf that's very organic looking, very whimsical, and you could see him playing here. You could use the whole entire brush and just kind of shake it back and forth to create that jagged edge edge look. But it's a little bit more difficult to create that organic look and feel that we're trying to create here. So you end up going back and trying to fix it, and it just China doesn't look like the one that is over on the left hand side. So the really easy way to do this is to just nest the shapes together. Okay, so we're gonna go ahead and move on to the leaf with over painted detail and over painted detail creates a lot more dimension and texture in your final composition. So I'm just creating a little tail here and then going out with the belly of my brush and then coming back down the other side of the leaf with the belly of my brush and then just painting in and filling in the entire leaf with color. And then I'm just smoothing this color out a little bit because I don't want it to be super super dark because I want to over paint some detail into this leaf. So I'm taking a smaller brush here. I have a number two, and I've let this dry a little bit, and I'm going to dip my brush into some indigo here and just a little bit of that serpentine green just to kind of create a little bit of a darker green and then starting from the leaf bottom, I'm just creating some little lines in to create, like, stem. Look, look and feel inside of the leaf. And this is just a over painted detail that adds a little bit of extra dimension to the leaf that we've painted here. And you could do this with some wash pain, but you can easily do this with your watercolors. I go working light, dark, so we have a light green leaf and some dark over pain in detail. Okay, so we're gonna go ahead and move on to our twigs and Berries, and this is a lot of fun, and you're really gonna get loose and free with your hand here. So I'm using this rigger brush, which is a really elongated brush, and it allows me to kind of create really super super thin lines for the twigs that I'm gonna be creating here. So I'm just gonna grab some of the screen here This Sable, Windsor Newton Sable brush isn't as thirsty of a brush as the black silver black velvet. So I'm going to have to kind of go back in and dip in and get more color here. But I'm using the tip of the rigger brush, and I see you can see how thin of a line you can get with the tip of this brush. And I'm just creating fix and thin lines to create my foe twigs, and I'll eventually add my Berries. But you can see I'm just using the tip of the brush. And then every once in a while, I'll pull it down a little bit and use the belly of the brush to create this kind of look and feel of twigs that don't have any leaves. And this rigger brush really does make it easy to do that. I'm gonna hold it out a little further so you can see, um, what you can do with this person ethics and the thins. And this is what I mean about that Russian out being super thirsty. I have to kind of get it wet and add a lot of paint to it, too. Keep that color consistent. Now you could use a really small brush. You could use your number two or number one and just use the tip of the brush to create this same effect. You could even use the number six. So if you have a number six brush and that's all you've got in your stash, no worries you can create the twigs. I really controlling the tip of the brush. You can see I've done that here with the number two just using the tip of the brush. And then as I put a little more pressure on the belly of the brush, I'm able to get thick and thin lines. So I'm just using the tip of the brush here again, and I just dipped it into a little bit of the quinacrine rose and I'm adding little dots to around the edges of the twigs to create that illusion of the Berries that might be on the tweaks here. Eggs and Berries create a really nice filler for our wreath, so let's go ahead and move on to the next module 6. Whimsical Wreaths: Color Palettes + Mood Board Inspiration: Okay, We're going to talk a bit about the color palette and mood board inspiration. And I'm gonna talk a lot about the way color feels. And we're going to talk about how to use mood boards to kind of give you some inspiration to create the color palette that you're going to pull together for our final project together. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about using mood boards. And I am going to show you that on my Pinterest sport, I have a pincher sport called inspiration color mood boards, and I will have that listed down in the project description for you as well the link to it . So you're more than welcome to go to my Pinterest board for some inspiration and ideas for your color palettes. So I collect up this thes mood boards and put them on this Pinterest board. And this is the one that I found that I really wanted to play with for this wreath project that we're doing together. So again, it's the inspiration color mood boards, and this is a great way to collect a pure your favorite color inspiration to create color palettes from and in this project that we're doing. We're going to use a limited color palette, and we're going to work with color based on how it feels for your project. So you might want to work with a color that feels cool for color that feels warm. Ah, color palette that feels cool or color palette that feels warm. So based on your palette of colors that you're working with, we're not going to be selecting colors based on their names. Were going to select colors from your palate based on how they make you feel. And do they feel cool or do they feel warm? So using this is kind of an intuitive way to paint. It also helps release you from all of the names of colors because depending upon which palette, you might be using your colors. Names might not match up with the color names that I've been sharing here from the Daniel Smith Pal, and that is okay and super cool. Whatever palette that you have, we're going to talk about picking colors more intuitively and picking colors that have more of a feel. To them. Colors has a temperature, and that temperature creates a mood and a feel that you you're gonna know what a color feels like. So, for example, some of these colors have been showing feel very cool, and some feel very, very warm. So here is my challenge for you for this project that we're going to create together. I would like you to build a swatch palette of your colors, and I want you to pick some colors that are cool. Or, if you wanna work with warm colors for your wreath, pick colors that feel warm and swatch them down on a piece of watercolor paper. And those are the colors that you're going to end up using for your final project together , because color can be super super moody and create a really nice feeling based on how the colors you paint with. So you're taking a look at these two palettes. So here is my swatch down palette of cool colors, and here's my swatch down palette of warm colors, and I've painted the same wreath with the same techniques. But just in these two different color combinations, and you can see that the one on the left is a lot cooler and feels cool, and the one on the right feels warmer, maybe more fall like so. I really want to challenge you to take a look at the colors you have and pick some colors intuitively, colors that feel warm and colors that feel cool. Swatch them down onto some paper, and those are the colors you're gonna paint with for our final project together. Okay, so here's another quick look at the two projects. The left side's cool and the right side swarm, and I really want you to experiment with the colors you have. So let's go ahead and move on to the next module. 7. Whimsical Wreaths: Painting the Wreath: Okay, so now it's time to put all of the techniques we've learned together into painting the final wreath. So depending upon which color palette you're choosing to work with, ah, cool or warm, we're going to get started on putting together the final wreath and all of the elements so that we can create the final project together and let's get started. OK, so we are going to start with painting the wreath and getting started with creating the construction of the wreath. So I have a really simple, um lid here that is in the shape of a circle. You could use a plate, you could use a compass you could use anything that you're comfortable with. Um, that fits on the five by five piece of watercolor paper. I just have this lid that sits around in my space, and I just use it to create circles that work really well on five by five pieces of paper. So I've taken my, um, pencil and have traced three different lines around the edge of the circle so that I can get big the beginning structure of the shape of my wreath. I'm also, um I didn't close off that wreath, and I left that space open in three different places because I am going to be working in threes to create the three different flowers and then building from there. So I'm going to start out. I'm going to create my wreath in a cool color palette. So I'm working with some ultra marine blue and some quinacrine own rose, and I'm gonna mix up some purples and violets here. Now, if you have a purple color in your border color palette, you can use that if that color feels warm to you and you're doing a warm project used the warm color. If it feels cool to you, go for it. So I'm just mixing up two colors so that I can create the purple that I want and I'm going to be starting with creating the three florals that are going to create this shape of the wreath that's going to be my foundation. And then I'm gonna be working around all of those elements. And I'm using the four petaled flower technique, which is that diamond shape, flower or hydrangea like flour and creating those shapes first in my florals to create the pedals for the flower. So I'm gonna go ahead. And throughout this project, I'm going to pop in and outs and provide instruction for the next step that I'm taking. But while I'm painting, I'm going to turn the music on and we're going to paint along together. And don't forget, you can always stop the video rewind, go back, take a look at the technique and paint along with me. So many Go ahead and turn some music line as I begin to create thes three different hydrangea like flowers that are going to create a triangular kind of look as the basis of my wreath here. So let's go ahead and paint along together, But you okay ? I'm gonna pop back in here because now we're going to move on to creating some of the leaf elements and start putting in some of the fillers so that we can add some more flowers. So I'm going to be working with this serpentine green and I'm gonna bounce between that color and a cascade green. Those two colors feel very cool to me. And I'm going to start with creating that open brushstroke belly of the brush leaf. So I am going to create a bunch of thes around the edges of the three florals that I have created here and just kind of use them as my grounding first leaf element to begin to create some shape and structure to the wreath here, I'm gonna pops a music on again as I work around and start to create this brush stroke leaf . And then I'll pop back in when we move to the next stage. - Okay , so now I've got thes three large leaf elements in, and I'm going to start working my way around the wreath and creating a little bit more construction to it with creating some of these leaves and foliage filler pieces. So I'm going to go back and forth between creating some of the long oval leaves and nested leaves and dots, and some of the texture and jagged edge leaves to kind of build a little bit more structure around the wreath so that I can nest some more florals in there. So I'm gonna go ahead and turn the music on, and you can paint along with me and just kind of play with the different techniques that we've learned to create this filler leaf elements and just work your way around the circle to help create the construction off the Reese. - Okay , so now we're going to move on and create some of the other florals that will help fill out the construction of the wreath. So I'm going to move between the four pedal angle flower and the three pedal filler floral that we did in the beginning and just kind of nest some of these florals in side of the wreath and on the outside of the reef just to create a little bit more Ah, variety in the florals and to kind of help fill out the wreath a little bit more. So the one that I'm doing right here is the four puddle angled flour. And I'm just kind of creating the construction of the three pedals. And I used a little bit of quinacrine tone. Rose and I left that center off the flower open a bit more so that I could draw in some of the quinacrine and rose and also add in a bit of other color Cem Indigo to create the stamen. So I'm gonna go ahead and turn some musical on as we begin to create the filler florals, uh, constructing them together to kind of bring together a little bit more off the shape of this wreath. So I'm going to pop back in here because now we're going to move on to creating the twigs and the Berries. And I'm using the rigger brush. Which is that a long gated brush To help give me those thick and thin lines that I wanna create to create thes twiggy, twiggy like looks and this organic like feel. And I'm going to nest thes twigs around the three main focal point flowers. So I'm gonna go ahead and turn on some music and we can paint along together and just have fun with this creating twigs, you can follow the shapes of the items that you've already created. You could also paint over top of any of the leaves or the flowers that you already have in your composition. And that's what kind of creates a little bit more extra texture and dimension and just kind of mix brings the whole thing in the whole composition together. Ah, little bit more. Now, remember, if you don't have the rigger brush, don't worry just use the really, really fine point of the brush that you do have and occasionally just put a little more pressure on the brush to give you a little bit more of a thick or thin line and you'll be able to create thes twigs really easily. Okay, let's go ahead and listen to a little bit of music and paints and weeks you Hey, once you've finished the final construction of the whole wreath, we're gonna go ahead and move on and add some details. So I've got two things here. I've got some white wash paint, and I also have the white Unipol signal pen to just go in. And this adding these details is what really dials up the texture dimension and gives it a little bit more of a whimsical flair. So I'm going to go back and forth from using the gel pen Teoh, adding dots and lines and a little bit of extra texture in the leaf elements using some of the quash. The wash pain is opaque. It can be really thin down, but I really like it as a finishing element over top of everything, So I'm just gonna pop on the music as we just finish up some of these final details before we move on to the next module of assembling and finishing up the card. You? No. - Okay , so I'm gonna wrap up the details here and get ready to move on to the next module. Where will create the three D elements and assemble the card? 8. Whimsical Wreaths: 3D Elements, Assembling the Card + Final Details: Hey, we are in the home stretch here to create the final details and three D elements for the project. So the first thing they were going to do is go back and grab a piece of that five by five watercolor paper that we talked about in the beginning. And I'm going to just go ahead and paint a couple different kinds of flowers on this watercolor paper. So I've got the four petaled flower here that I'm just painting and just putting together. I'm going to also do a brushstroke flour and a four peddled angled flower. So you want to go ahead and, Pete, three flowers that we're going to cut out and they're going to be the three D elements that we're going to use on the front of the card. You can paint any kind of flower that you want, whatever you think is going to look good for your card, but just have some fun with it. So I'm gonna go ahead and turn on some music as I Pete some of these elements that we're going to use for the three d portion of the project and I'll be popping back in and wheel, head to the finish line you. - So we're gonna go ahead and move on here to create the three D banner, and that includes the elements that we're going to me nesting on top. So you're going to go ahead and grab your quarter inch strip that you created with watercolor paper at the beginning during the supplies lesson, And I'm going to take this piece of watercolor paper and I've got this ruler here that has a little slit in it, and I'm popping that ruler, pumping that piece of watercolor paper in the ruler and just kind of ending it backwards to create this banner. Now, you could create that by just scoring the paper in two different spots to create that little pop up three D banner there. And I'm just trimming off the edges with the with the scissors here and cutting little diagonals in into it to create this banner. And it's a really super simple way to create a pop up with some paper. Okay, so now we're gonna assemble the card. I've got a little bit of double sided tape here, and double sided tape works really well on watercolor paper. So I'm just gonna it here, all of that to the watercolor paper, and then it here, the whole wreath element to our card base, and we've got the assembly of the card. So now we're gonna go ahead and add the three D banner and add all of the floral elements. So I've just got a little bit of clear glue here that I'm just adding to the back of the banner, just it hearing that down to the base of the card as I move on to hand cutting all of those little florals that I painted and once their hand cut, we can begin to add the details and assemble the three D elements to the card. So the banner is already assembled and just glued onto the base of the card. And once I hand cut all the florals now I'm just adding a little bit of details to the florals with with the gel pen and little bit of dots here and there. Just add a little touch of whimsy to the whole project. And before I go ahead and add it to the final card, So just adding a little bit of painted elements. Um stay men's and centers to the flowers and these air Really fun, whimsical flowers that are gonna make great three D elements that are going to go on top of our card here. So we're gonna go ahead and bring the card over and using a little bit of glue, just start to assemble the florals. And I'm just tucking them under and putting them on top of the banner element just to create that little more whimsy and to create that three D elements. So the banner is really just acting as the vehicle for us to eat here, all of the different leaves and florals to it to create that three d effect. And I'm really digging the way this color is coming out. We've got that cool look and feel. It's got a lot of movement to it, and it's just a really great composition here, adding these three D elements at the end it is so worth it. Hand cutting those flowers and just that hearing them to the top creates that whole extra level of texture and dimension that takes your whole project composition to the next level . And all you need is some scissors and your hand, your flowers that she painted and a little bit of white glue to create this three d effect . And I just love it. So I'm just I'm cutting a little puddle from one of the flowers that have decided not to use and just adding a little bit of white glue to it and just making it into a penalties to kind of pull that whole flower together. And I am digging the way this is looking. It's just so fun. So now we're gonna go ahead and move on and add some of the final touches to the composition. And this is a totally optional thing to Dio. I'm gonna add some of the iridescent medium. You can add any of the things that you'd like to add to your project that would give it a little bit of the glow. Uh, this year doesn't medium or any kind of iridescent watercolors or even gel pens or something that you have in your stash in your paper crafting stash or your painting stash that's just gonna add a little bit more shimmer and shine. This iridescent medium is just something I've had for a while and you can mix it with water , color and paint to just kind of dial up the glow in the color. But I like to just pull it right from the bottle and just paint a little bit of it on to these pedals here just to give him a little bit of an extra shimmer. It's kind of unexpected. Just adds that little extra element. Okay, so I'm grabbing a little bit of quinacrine own rose and putting it down onto my mat here and really wedding it down because I'm going toe add a little touch of splatter to the final project here. So I've got my paintbrush nice and juicy with that watercolor and I'm just gonna tap it on toe. Add a few little extra dots. You could do this with any color that might work with the composition that you're working with. You could use whites you could use any color just really, really loving that splatter element at the end. So you made it all the way to the end. You did it. I'm so excited. I really have enjoyed teaching you this project, and I hope that you have found great joy in creating it with me. You can see I'm pulled the other project in just to kind of show you some of the three D elements in the iridescent look of the other warm palette project. And it's just so fun to create this wreath, look and feel. Turn it into a card. You could also frame it if you wanted to. But before we go, I want to talk a little bit about the bonus envelope template that I have provided to you in the project area as well. So I have a free download is part of the class off this bonus template for the envelope for the card. So all you have to do is print it out and follow the instructions that are on the hand out , and you can make this envelope. And it's just so much fun because it fits perfectly to your five by five card, and I've got all of the instructions for how to cut it and how to, um, score and fold it. But you can see that the five by five card fits in there really nicely, and you can paint on the front of it if you want. Using the techniques that we did in the class together. I hope you really enjoy creating whimsical floral Rees with me. I have loved every minute of this class. Join me in the next module for some final thoughts and goodbyes. 9. Whimsical Wreaths: Final Thoughts and Thank YOU!: Hi, friends. I just want to thank you for joining me for the whimsical floral wreaths class. And I really hope you enjoy creating your handmade card. If this is your first class with me, I'm so grateful you join me, please consider taking a look at my other watercolor class offerings. May you find pause from the hustle, fueler joy and inspiration here. Thank you so much. And I'll see you next time.