Making Cards Using Metallic Watercolors

After using Soho Metallic Watercolors for the first time on my Liberty Bell project, I wanted to play with them a bit more. I tried them on black cardstock and white coldpress watercolor paper, then experimented with coloring over them with alcohol markers and colored pencils. Then I turned my painted doodles into cards. Affiliate links below. 

Metallic Watercolor Cards

Materials: 

• watercolor paper
• cardstock
• Soho metallic watercolors
• sequins
• craft glue
• Posca colored pencils
• black Ohuhu Honolulu marker

Steps:

I started with scraps of watercolor paper and black cardstock. I painted dots onto one of the watercolor papers and flowers onto the other two papers. While I needed two coats to get decent coverage on the watercolor paper, the colors popped on the black with just a single coat of paint. The Sohos definitely perform better on a dark background, whether that's black paper or an underpainting. 

Since I was happy with how the little flowers looked on the black paper, I trimmed that paper down to size for a card, backed it with pink, added a sentiment on a pink strip, then glued sequins to the center of each flower. 

Moving on to the other two. I wondered if the metallics would pop better if I colored the white space around the flowers black, so I used a Honolulu on each. That improved things slightly, but the colors weren't quite as shiny as they were on black paper. I also learned that the metallic paint will show through the ink of the alcohol marker slightly if you try to color over it. Good to know. I backed the dotted painting with yellow dotted paper and added a sentiment. 

I used Posca colored pencils to add flower centers and leaves to the final painting. The creamy pencils worked beautifully on the metallic paint. They also colored over the alcohol marker really well. I backed this card with purple and added a sentiment. 

I had fun experimenting with the metallic watercolors - making these cards was a lot more entertaining than making swatch cards would have been. I love the wide variety of colors. They have an incredible shimmer that doesn't come across in photos. And now that I know, I'll be painting these metallics on dark paper or with a base layer underneath.

Where I've Been: National Historic Sites

After discovering I've been to only 15 of the 64 National Historical Parks, I was curious how many of the National Historic Sites I've visited. As I noted in the previous post, a National Historic Sites (NHS) tends to be smaller than a National Historical Park (NHP). Often, they focus on a single building of importance in US history. 

There are 75 NHS units in the National Park System. As before, I've added a star if I've been there. If I've visited since I started blogging about travel, I've added a link. 

Where I've Been: National Historic Sites

Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site, Pennsylvania

Amache National Historic Site, Colorado

Andersonville National Historic Site, Georgia

Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, Tennessee

Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site, Colorado

Blackwell School National Historic Site, Texas

Boston African American National Historic Site, Massachusetts

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, North Carolina

Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site, District of Columbia

Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, South Carolina

Christiansted National Historic Site, Virgin Islands

Clara Barton National Historic Site, Maryland

Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, Pennsylvania

Eisenhower National Historic Site, Pennsylvania

*Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, New York

Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, California

First Ladies National Historic Site, Ohio

*Ford's Theatre National Historic Site, District of Columbia

Fort Bowie National Historic Site, Arizona

Fort Davis National Historic Site, Texas

Fort Laramie National Historic Site, Wyoming

Fort Larned National Historic Site, Kansas

*Fort Point National Historic Site, California

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, North Carolina

Fort Scott National Historic Site, Kansas

Fort Smith National Historic Site, Arkansas and Oklahoma

Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, Montana and North Dakota

Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Washington

Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, District of Columbia

Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Massachusetts

Friendship Hill National Historic Site, Pennsylvania

Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, Montana

Hampton National Historic Site, Maryland

Harry S Truman National Historic Site, Missouri

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, Iowa

*Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, New York

Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, Pennsylvania

Honouliuli National Historic Site, Hawaii

Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, Arizona

James A. Garfield National Historic Site, Ohio

John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site, Massachusetts

*John Muir National Historic Site, California

Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, North Dakota

Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Illinois

*Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Arkansas

Longfellow - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, Massachusetts

Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, Virginia

Manzanar National Historic Site, California

Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, New York

Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, District of Columbia

Minidoka National Historic Site, Idaho

*Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, South Dakota

New Philadelphia National Historic Site, Illinois

Nicodemus National Historic Site, Kansas

Ninety Six National Historic Site, South Carolina

*Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site, District of Columbia

President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site, Arkansas

Pu'ukoholā Heiau National Historic Site, Hawaii

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, New York

Saint Paul's Church National Historic Site, New York

*San Juan National Historic Site, Puerto Rico

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, Colorado

Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site, Massachusetts

Springfield Armory National Historic Site, Massachusetts

Steamtown National Historic Site, Pennsylvania

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site, New York

*Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, New York

Thomas Stone National Historic Site, Maryland

*Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, Alabama

Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site, Alabama

Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, Missouri

Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site, New York

Washita Battlefield National Historic Site, Oklahoma

Whitman Mission National Historic Site, Washington

William Howard Taft National Historic Site, Ohio

I've been to 11 out of 75 National Historic Sites. Again, that's lower than I'd expected. But that just means I have a lot of destinations to look forward to visiting in the future!

Liberty Bell Watercolor Painting

In case you missed it, the US Mint is producing the first non-round coin since 1915, when the $50 octagonal Panama-Pacific coin was introduced. This new coin is shaped like the Liberty Bell. The price? $19,600. It contains one ounce of gold, the current value of which is $4,053. They're only producing 2026 of them, so apparently the scarcity makes up for the extra $15,500? Hard pass, obviously. 

Instead of buying a chunk of gold shaped like the Liberty Bell, I recommend keeping $19,550 in the bank and putting the rest toward some fun art supplies. Then use them to make a painting of the Liberty Bell. Affiliate links below. 

Liberty Bell Watercolor Painting

Materials: 

• watercolor paper
• watercolors
• metallic watercolors
• colored pencils

Steps: 

Find a reference image of the Liberty Bell. I used the picture on the Wikipedia page. Sketch the basic shape of the Liberty Bell onto your watercolor paper. Only include the basic shapes; ignore all details. Fill in the basic shapes with a combination of brown and black. 

When the first layer is dry, add the next layer. I put streaks of browns and black onto the yoke, then painted the bell with blue, grey, and brown. I added some of the details, like the metal bars connecting the bell to the yoke, and the supports at the base of the bell. 

When that layer was dry, I added metallics to the bell. This was my first time using the Soho metallics - they're awesome! I added streaks and patches of gold and bronze to the top, bottom, and right side of the bell, then added silver and white to make the reflection. Then I painted the background light blue. 

Then I added the famous crack. 

For the final step, I used brown and black colored pencils to add in the last details. I chose not to write the text on the bell, but I did add the lines. I was worried that the colored pencils might not work well on top of the metallics, but it wasn't an issue. 

This was a fun project to do. I really enjoyed experimenting with the metallics and am excited to use them again. Next time, I want to try more of the colors. 

Fourth of July

We celebrated the Fourth of July with Suzzi, Larry, Dawn, and all of our kids... none of whom are kids anymore! We had a delicious meal with festive drinks that were tasty if hard to drink and hung out by the pool. We saw a beautiful sunset and many (illegal) fireworks. We had a wonderful time. 

Fourth of July 2026 (affiliate link)

The pictures I took around the table inspired this page. Because there was so much empty space above and below the smiling faces, I cropped all that off before printing my photos. The six photos you see were printed as two 4x6" photos, which I then cut into thirds and separated with a journaling block.  

Posca Colored Pencils and the National Parks Postcard Coloring Book

Many of you probably know Posca for their amazing paint markers, but did you know that they now make colored pencils as well? When the folks from Posca reached out to me to try their 12-pack of colored pencils, I happily accepted. Posca Colored Pencils have a creamy wax-hybrid formulation intended to produce bright and consistent color, with the ability to blend and layer smoothly. I was eager to see how these pencils would perform. This post contains affiliate links. 

I decided to use the Posca pencils to color an image from the new-to-me National Parks Postcard Coloring Book. This A6-size book contains images from 20 units of the National Park System on thick cardstock appropriate for mailing. 

I selected the image of a bald eagle at Olympic National Park and started coloring. I loved how vibrant the color was and how easy it was to get good coverage. The pencils felt good in my hand. The colors blended well, although with only 12 colors it was infinitely more difficult to get subtle blends than if I'd had a larger set. The thick paper of the postcard took color beautifully and worked very well with the pencils. 

Here is my finished postcard. 

This is what the back looks like. I added a tiny bit of color, but didn't want to cover the writing area. I'll probably end up decorating it after I address it and add my message. 

I really enjoyed this project. The Posca colored pencils are a delight to use, though having only 12 colors is very limiting. The postcards feature beautiful images printed on paper that it ideal for coloring. The small size allowed me to finish the project in a much shorter amount of time than a standard coloring page. I'm eager to use both the pencils and the coloring book again!