Yesterday I showed you a free printable Mod Podged onto some pallet boards to create art for a surf-themed road.  Kim from Sand and Sisal is here today to show you yet another easy art idea.  This is so simple but yields amazing results.  Using some watercolor paints and some rubber cement (who knew?) she created this impressive hand painted art pieces with her daughter for her room.
watercolor art

Supplies:
Heavy weight watercolor paper (I used a 90 lb. weight paper)
Watercolors
large soft paintbrush
cups of water
rubber cement
stencils

watercolors

Place a stencil you like over your watercolor paper and brush a thick coating of rubber cement over the stencil.

rubber cement over stencil

Remove the stencil and you will see the rubber cement impression. Allow it to dry completely (about 5 minutes).

rubber cement stencil

Choose the colors you want to paint with. I chose a few different shades of blues, greens, and yellows. Make sure to moisten each of your colors before starting to paint. You do this by dipping your brush in water and swirling and working the paint in its pot. If you have artist grade watercolors in a tube then prepare your watercolors in a recessed pallet. Have plenty of fresh water for rinsing between colors.
Working quickly, start to apply your paint in random areas, blending gently with the brush. The paint will resist the areas that have the rubber cement. Some droplets will remain on the rubber cement and that is just fine.

watercolor resist art

You you are happy with how your colors look, allow it to dry completely, and I mean completely.  We set ours in the sun to dry. It took just a few minutes. Now comes the fun part! With clean fingers, gently rub off the rubber cement, revealing the white paper underneath. Warning: if you do not use a heavy weight watercolor paper then this will not work. You will end up ripping the paper.

watercolor resist

My teen daughter chose a frog and butterfly stencil to make two more pieces of art. Didn’t she do a great job? I found some inexpensive dollar store frames and placed the watercolors in them. The colors go great in her turquoise and lime room.
watercolor art
In under an hour we had 3 beautiful and original pieces of watercolor resist artwork!
Here are some other pieces we’ve done in her room you might like.
lantern fixture 1 (800x767)
 DIY Style Tile Board  (602x800)
Kim

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13 Comments

  1. These are lovely. I’ve done something similar with heat embossing. I heat emboss (using clear embossing powder) a stamp, and then watercolor or use distress inks. This will leave you with a glossy slightly raised white image but sometimes that’s a nice look too.

  2. Boy, you put a bee in my bonnet! I worked on this this today, only I used Twinkling H20’s. They give it a wonderful sparkle. Thanks for this great idea!

  3. Love this project! Very cool! What brand is the watercolor palette shown above? 🙂

    xO
    Candy J.

  4. Hi Candy, the palette is by Angora. I think I purchased it at Michaels Crafts store several years ago. Thanks so much for the sweet comment!

  5. Oh. Wow. If you’ve never painted liquid frisket or cut frisket paper by hand (like for airbrushing on illustration board…yes, very old school!) then you don’t know how freakishly awesome this technique is! Thanks for sharing!

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