How to Use Peerless Watercolors for Bold Florals

Take your cards to the next level by trying out some Peerless Watercolors. They pair beautifully with any of the Brass and Bliss Floral Stamps for cards that WOW!

Today our designer Kassi is showing off Peerless Watercolors in her newest floral card design. Brass and Bliss is proud to be offering these on our website and in our show booths, so be sure to snag a set or two and play around with them. We’ve all seen watercolor paint that comes in a palette, paint that comes in little pans, or even paint that come in little tubes. Many crafters are familiar with watercolor that comes in pencil form, markers, or crayons… perhaps even in a little bottle of liquid goodness… but have you ever seen (or wondered about) the watercolor paint that comes on flat sheets of paper in a book the size of your checkbook?

Peerless watercolors are an interesting type of watercolor that has been around for more than 130 years. They were originally designed as an easy way to add color to black and white photos, but were so enjoyed by watercolor artists that they are still available today long after traditional B/W photography has slipped into the halls of history!

So what exactly are they? They are sheets of specialty paper that won’t break down with water, painted with a layer of paint… that’s it! To use, simply stroke the paper with a damp brush to pick up some color, then paint like usual on watercolor paper! Sounds easy, right? Let’s take a closer look at a few things to note.

Watch Tutorial Below:

They are VIBRANT! A little goes a long way for bright, vivid colors! I have no idea how long a single sheet lasts, but I would guess (especially when working on small items like cards), it will last you quite a while!
Make a swatch- most colors do not look the remotely the same when diluted with water as they do in the intensity they are on the carrier sheet.
They are transparent… so you don’t have to worry about covering up your stamped lines!
They spread and blend beautifully on paper for gorgeous wet on wet backgrounds! Simply wet your paper (either with a spray bottle or with clean water on your brush), then paint on various colors allowing them to mix, mingle, and overlap on the paper… GORGEOUS!
They can also be a quick way to add color to die cuts!
They can be mixed- while the original pack comes with 15 colors, you are not limited by that! Simply load up your brush with one color, and scribble the color out onto a non-porous surface, then rinse out your brush and pick up your second color.. mix the two colors together on your non-porous surface and you have a brand new custom color! (If you are interested in a deep dive of color mixing, let me know- I’m always happy to talk colors!)
The sheets can be cut down to smaller sizes using a paper trimmer or scissors to make painting on the go even easier! (be sure to wipe off the blades afterwards so you don’t accidentally transfer color to your next project!)
If you want to use these as a travel palette, you might enjoy getting a water brush to go with it (the brushes that have paint in the handle). It keeps things nice and easy as you don’t need worry about having a cup of water on hand!
They are a bit messy- colorful dust particles can fall off, and when water hits the dust, it blooms into a brightly colored spot on whatever it’s touching… so I when you are done painting, let the sheets dry completely, then put into a plastic bag, zippered pouch, or a tin of some kind to ensure your bag doesn’t end up unexpectedly colorful. (an Altoid tin would work well if you have cut your papers down!)
They are dye based, so they will stain- this means that techniques requiring lifting will be harder using these paints. This also means it can be a bit harder to get rid of initial brush marks on your paper. If you have used watercolor markers before, you might have experienced this. This is just part of the deal with many dye based paints- not something that is wrong with them, but something to be aware of as you work with them.

If you want to give Peerless watercolors a try, you can pick them up HERE. Enjoy!

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