Not too long ago I won two packs of Peerless Watercolors from Stamping Bella's blog (thanks Em!!). I have heard of these before but have never seen them in real life so I was quite excited for this chance to try them out.
I received the Complete Collection (shown here) and the Terra Sahara pack. I took some pics of this whole process so y'all can see them for yourself b/c they are seriously the neatest things ever.
I copied this from the Peerless website here:
The most convenient form yet devised to keep colors clean and available for instant use. The color sheet is a heavy film of highly concentrated pure color of intense strength and absolute solubility. The color is coated on one side of a special paper fabric that readily discharges when it comes into contact with water or any soluble mixture.
So this is what the Terra Sahara collection looks like (the sides showing are the actual watercolor pigment - some of them look almost black but they're really dark browns/reddish browns etc)
And here's the other side - you can get a much better idea of the colors and the info for each color is printed right onto the paper.
FYI you obviously don't want to get these wet unintentionally or spill on them as they'll run color everywhere (thankfully I did NOT do this but I can just imagine the mess). I plan on storing each set in ziplock sandwich bags to prevent that from happening.
And another thing - if it is hot and humid where you are you need to be more careful handling these as the color comes off really easily onto your hands. There is no risk of ruining the papers or losing all the color b/c of the climate - but you could unintentionally get some on your hands and then touch your clothes or cardstock or whatever and transfer the color (now THAT I did do b/c it was SO hot here when I was using these!)
So - I stamped this image from Stamping Bella ("attitudy" cats) onto watercolor paper (Strathmore Watercolor Cold Press 140lb - got a pad of it at Michaels with a 40% off coupon months and months ago).
I originally meant to use Stazon but as you can see it didn't stamp well (and I could find my re-inker to see if that was the reason it didn't stamp well - tho it seemed to be fine) so I stamped it using Palette Hybrid Noir instead - MUCH better!
Oh and let me say that I am in NO way an expert on watercoloring - far from it in fact. I am sure what all I don't know about watercoloring can fill many books - I just thought I'd share all this b/c it's pretty cool and FUN to do!!
I began by wetting the cat I wanted to color first (I use Aquapainters from SU to do my watercoloring. I always keep some paper towel handy to dab them on when they become too wet for my liking. I hate using a dish and a regular watercolor brush as more often than not I knock over the dish (usually ON to whatever I was working on....))
Then to use the Peerless watercolors you just dab the wet brush right onto a corner of the paper. The color is VERY concentrated so it doesn't take much to get a lot of color picked up on your brush (which also means that a set of these will last you for a VERY long time).
Then all you have to do is paint away!
This didn't take me very long to color at all. And I must say using these is a GREAT way to entertain children - Veronica was sitting with me the whole time (for those that don't know she's my oldest daughter and she's 5) and was just awestruck with the whole process. To her it was like magic getting colors off these papers (and of course she thought the cat stamp was the coolest thing ever *wink*).
I am thinking that down the road I will get her a set of these for herself as they aren't expensive at all and like I said they'll last for a LONG time (even with a kid messing around with them).
Here's my finished card. I added sky and ground using two colors from the Peerless Complete Collection (all the cats were done with the Terra Sahara collection).
I used a sentiment from A Muse (punched out with a Marvy circle punch then sponged with brown ink), some patterned paper from Basic Grey, ribbon, primas, Doodlebug Crushed Velvet Brads (so fuzzy in real life!!) and the Houndstooth CuttleBug embossing folder on the brown cardstock.
Here's a more detailed shot so you can see the fuzziness of the brads and the texture on the CS.
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SO - will I use these again? Well I just finished ordering the Bella Blend and Rejuvenating collections from Stamping Bella (along with a few other goodies I couldn't resist - and for some reason totally MISSED getting the Calypso Pink, Serenity and Bonuspak collections!! I just realized that as I went to link to the other ones - ugh!! Oh well I can get them some other time...) - so how's that for an answer? I really like them - they're affordable and take up next to no space as they're small and flat (an important feature for me as I am really trying to cut down on the amount of STUFF I have in my studio right now - or at least the amount of space my STUFF takes up....), they're easy to use, keep children entertained while using them, and will last for years and years. So really what's not to love? In fact I don't have anything negative to say about them at all.
If you're interested in trying these out I recommend starting with the Complete Collection as there's a bunch if info and helpful tips in the packet - there's even tips for each color - it's very cool. Tell Em if/when you order that AmyR sent you (and says Hi! LOL).
OK I've blabbed enough about these - and FYI I am in no way getting compensated for all of this. I just thought they were really cool and knew it would help to be able to SEE what I'm talking about. I didn't think I'd go on and on about them but what can I say - I'm a talker in real life and it tends to flow over into my blog *wink*
