Experimenting with Thread on Watercolour Paper

When I do a watercolour, I often have small pieces of watercolour paper left over after tearing the paper to the size I want for a particular painting. As a true hoarder, I never throw these out. So this week I was trying to come up with an idea on how to use them. It came to me that I could probably put these pieces of paper into my sewing machine and stitch on them.

From this idea, I developed a new way to make greeting cards.

I took my watercolour scraps and wet them completely with water. Then I dropped a dollop of watercolour paint onto the wet paper and watched it spread and move across. Before the paper dried too much I introduced another colour and watched what happened. As is true of watercolour, when the pieces dried, they appeared much lighter in colour than when I put the paint on. However, I didn't mind the subtle colours because I could then use darker coloured thread for accents. I also experimented with a more concentrated watercolour ink which left the paintings more vibrant and this worked too. It gives a totally different feel and look to the final product.

To make the cards, I cut 8.5 X 11 inch white card stock in half to make two pieces of 8.5 X 5.5 inches. I folded them in half to make two cards. Then I went back to my mini-watercolour abstracts and tore them to fit the card. I made them smaller than the cards so they would sit on top and have room around them.

Instead of gluing the watercolour paintings onto the card, I simply used the stitching to attach them. One thing to remember when doing this is never go right to the edge of the card with the stitching. Stitching perforates the paper so if you go right to the edge, your card will rip apart fairly quickly. Another thing I learned is that using light coloured thread doesn't work because all you see then are the holes made by the needle.

Before I start stitching, I look at the little abstract watercolour and determine what shapes I see. Sometimes I see flowers or sometimes trees jump out at me and other times I get a feeling of undersea activity. This determines the direction of my stitching. The colours of watercolour paint I used determines the colour of thread I'm going to use. I always use a white lingerie thread in the bobbin so it can't be seen on the inside. For some cards I covered the inside stitching but on most, I just left it. It actually looks pretty neat from the inside as well with all the little perforations.

As you can see, I stitch off the edges of the watercolour
paper. It gives it an interesting and more playful look
and also gives more stability to the adhesion of the
watercolour paper to the cardstock.