This tutorial is for all the DIY card makers who create watercolor designs for their cards. We will make a simple card project using Rebelle digital watercolors. Rebelle is a new digital painting software from Escape Motions. You will really like the realistic paint diffusion and color blending in Rebelle.

One of the best Rebelle features is the Stencils panel and the stencils work just like traditional stencils. Best of all, it's easy to import your own stencils. For this project, I'm giving away a free sample stencil (see link below to download the zip).

We will be creating our watercolor design for a 4.25 x 5.5 inch card, which will fit an A2 sized envelope. We will also set the resolution to 300 dpi for printing on your home printer.

Our design will be a group of party balloons in various colors. You can choose your own color palette or use one of the Color Set presets in Rebelle.

Let's begin by starting a new design.

1. Open Rebelle. From the Menubar, click File - New. In the dialog (see screenshot), set the width and height for a 5.5 by 4.25 inch card. We also need to set the DPI resolution to 300.
   
   
2. In the Layers panel, rename the default Layer 1 to "Balloons" (see screenshot).
   
   Next, let's load our color palette.
   
   
3. Click the Color Set panel tab and select the Default preset (see screenshot), which has a wide variety of colors. You should see these color swatches appear in the window above the presets.
   
   Now, let's import the stencil. Don't forget to unzip the zip download file.
   
   
4. On the right of the workspace, click the Stencils panel tab to open the Stencils panel. Click the Menu icon to open the menu and choose Create Stencil from Image File (see screenshot). Find the sample Party Balloon Digital Stencil .png that you just downloaded and click Open. You will see the new stencil thumbnail added to the top of the stencils list (see screenshot).
   
   
5. Click on the stencil thumbnail to add the stencil to the canvas.
   
   As you can see, the stencil has both a balloon shape cut out and a thin line cut out for the balloon's string. You are not limited to the stencil's default size and position. You can scale, move and rotate the stencil as you like.
   
   Let's paint some balloons.
   
   
6. Place the stencil in the location that you wish to paint the first balloon. Drag on the Scale icon to enlarge or reduce the balloon shape (see screenshot).
   
   
7. In the Tools panel (see screenshot), select the Watercolor tool. Set the Size and Water to 70 and the Pressure and Loading to 40. Under these sliders, select the Normal brush icon and the Mop brush shape.
   
   
8. Using the color of your choice from the Color Set panel, paint inside the balloon shape area and enjoy the paint diffusion (see screenshot).
   
   
9. Next, let's add more paint, choose another color. Starting at the left side of the balloon, add the new color along the edge of the balloon (see screenshot).
   
   
10. Repeat the previous steps for a few more balloons. Choose a different color, size and position for each (see screenshot).
    
    Now we will add the line art. For those with a steady hand, you may wish to draw the lines with the Pencil or Ink Pen tool. However, the rest of us will use the stencil. As we mentioned, there is matching line art for the edge of the balloon and for the string. Let's work on a new layer.
    
    
11. In the Layers panel, click the Plus icon to add a new layer. Name the layer "Lines" (see screenshot). The stencil will automatically be active on the new layer.
    
    
12. Move the line art over the first balloon.
    
    Let's paint the line art with a very dry brush.
    
    
13. Select the Watercolor tool and set the Size to 30, Pressure and Loading to 40 and Water to 1. Choose a dark color and paint over the line around the balloon and over the string. Repeat for other balloons. (see screenshot).
    
    Our last step is to add a border around the edge of the card. But first we need to remove the stencil from the canvas.
    
    
14. From the Stencil Menu, choose Remove (see screenshot).
    
    
15. Now, click the Plus icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, to add a third layer. Name this layer "Border" (see screenshot).
    
    
16. Set the brush shape to Flat, the Size to 45, Pressure and Loading 35, and Water to 25 (see screenshot).
    
    
17. Let's paint the top border with the Watercolor tool. Start at one edge of the card and paint a line across the top. Repeat this for the bottom edge (see screenshot).
    
    
18. For the right and left edges, lets paint a few short lines parallel to the top and bottom (see screenshot).
    
    
19. Save the project in the Rebelle .reb file format. Also, save the file again in the .jpg format for printing (see screenshot).
    
    

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Screenshots used by permission of Escape Motions, s.r.o.