Nicholson's Peerless Transparent Watercolors

I sat down yesterday morning with a deliberate plan to use my Nicholson's Peerless Transparent Watercolors which are available at Simon Says Stamp or Ellen Hutson, LLC.  I got these last November on a Black Friday Deal but never got them swatched until about halfway through February of this year and this is actually the first time I've used them.

Nicholson's Peerless Transparent Watercolors are intensely concentrated mineral pigments that come on a paper substrate or "film".  To activate them you only need to touch a damp paintbrush to them.  Charles Nicholson developed this dry form of watercolor in 1885 and the original formula is still in use today, more than 130 years later.  The colors are rich, vibrant and very transparent.  You can use the color straight from the paper or you can touch the color to an acrylic block to add water until the intensity of color you want is achieved.

This first card used Robin's Egg Blue and Grass Green which are both part of the Bonus Pack of colors.  I mixed both colors with a bit of Perfect Pearls Pigment Powder and water and layered in my color as I would with any other watercolor medium. Because the Peerless are so vibrant, I only needed to do two layers of color.  By the time I finished painting the second flower I could go back to the first one for the 2nd layer of color with no waiting. I'm not using much water in most cases so that I have more control over where the color is more or less intense.  I'm using a #4 Round Silver Black Velvet Paint Brush but I use a water brush equally as often.  I made a card base from one of my favorite card stock colors called Hawaiian Shores from Papertrey Ink.  I was delighted when I realized that this paper is the exact same color as Audrey Blue.

My second card was painted with Garnet Pink which is part of the Pretty In Pink Peerless Watercolors; a 6 color set.  The stamp set I used for these cards is called Persian Motifs from Altenew. There are coordinating dies available although I didn't use them today. I heat embossed the "Hello" sentiment from Graceful Greetings by Papertrey Ink after I had watercolored the flowers. This set also has coordinating dies available.  The card base I used here was made from Papertrey Ink Autumn Rose Cardstock.

My last card today is done in Geranium Pink (a favorite) from the Complete Edition and mounted onto a Regal Rose Cardstock base which is a SU! no longer available color.  I'm happy to say that I have now used all three editions of Peerless Watercolors that I acquired all the way back in November.

Each of the card fronts was cut with a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles Die in the largest size.

Such pretty flowers will make for some bright and cheerful greeting cards for friends and family.  I used my favorite method of watercolor here by heat embossing my images in Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder which has become my favorite due to the warmth in this tone.  The theme over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog this week is "Try to Resist".

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I will be back very soon with another project.  The supplies I've used are linked in my post or there are links in the sidebar for Papertrey Ink, Simon Says Stamp and Ellen Hutson, LLC.