Watercolor Batik Cards

For those of you who enjoy stamping, this creative project will appeal to you. Learn how to create the look of batik with rubber cement and watercolors. Use any item for stamping that you wish from leaves to children's blocks.

Learn more about real batik at Paula Burch's Website.

Ages 7 and up.

Supplies:

  • Watercolor paper
  • Rubber Cement
  • Disposable foam plates
  • Items for stamping such as leaves, wooden blocks, DUPLO blocks, etc.
  • Can of water
  • Large watercolor brush
  • Watercolor Paints
  • Paper towels
  • Gum eraser (optional)
  • Colored cardstock or construction paper
  • Paper cutter or scissors
  • Glue stick
  • Markers (Optional: See step 13.)

Directions:

1. Make sure you are working outside or in a well ventilated area. Rubber cement is NOT good to breath in!

2. Pour some rubber cement into a foam plate and choose some items to use for stamping, such as leaves or blocks. You may also have small children use their hands to make handprints!

3. Brush the rubber cement onto the stamping item and stamp an impression on the watercolor paper. Repeat many times to create a pattern or random design.
4. Allow to dry completely. (Dried rubber cement can be rubbed off blocks and hands easily.)
5. In the meantime, choose a color scheme for your design. Using all cool colors or all warm colors will work better than using contrasting colors since they will all bleed together. (When contrasting colors mix, like red and green, they make brown.) Some suggested schemes would be: RED-ORANGE-YELLOW or BLUE-GREEN-VIOLET.

6. Using a large watercolor paintbrush, completely wet the surface of the stamped paper with clean water. Make sure you brush from end to end!

7. Start adding spots of color to the paper, allowing the colors to bleed together. Completely cover the page.

8. Crumple up a paper towel and lightly blot the painted paper, created a tie-die look. Allow to dry completely.

9. Using a clean finger or gum eraser, rub off all of the rubber cement. This will leave a clean, white spot where the cement was.

10. Cut the paper apart into rectangles, looking for interesting compositions.

11. Create greeting cards out of the cardstock or construction paper and glue the watercolor designs to the cards.

 

12. Flatten the cards between two heavy books for at least an hour (preferably a day). This will make them flat and cause the glue to really stick.

13. Optional: Outline the shapes in a sketchy way with a marker. (You might want to practice on some of the discarded pieces first!)

 

© Karine Bauch 2007. All rights reserved.

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