Last weekend, Simon Says Stamp and Tim Holtz held their Free Watercolor Class. I had to catch the replay, as Ian and I were busy painting over at Mom’s condo. I finally had a chance to put my cards together yesterday, so today I have a little show-and-tell for you featuring the six cards I finished.
The class definitely gets you inspired to paint! I still have lots of UFOs (unfinished objects) sitting on my desk, but with design team deadlines calling, I had to pack everything away and get back to work, LOL
Even if you didn’t purchase the kit, the class is packed with great information, and the techniques can easily be used with pretty much any stamped image. Tim makes the messy watercolor technique so approachable, and since he had already selected all the colors fur us, that made it even easier to jump in and start painting.
Heidi and Tim are pretty hilarious together too, haha.
I’ve shared the link to the FREE CLASS at the end of the post so you can check it out too!.

Products Used For the Messy Watercolor Christmas Cards:
- Season of Wonder and Season of Magic Stamps and Dies (no longer available)
A7 Rectangle Dies - A2 Notched Dies
- Wonky Rectangles
- Rock Candy and Chunky Rock Candy
- Waterbrush
- Glossy Accents
- Distress Stains: Antique Linen, Candied Apple, Forest Moss, Fossilized Amber, Gathering Twigs, Lost Shadow, Lumberjack Plaid, Rustic Wilderness, Saltwater Taffy and Story Sky. (all linked below).
- and, Rangers small squeeze bottles for the Distress Stains

Messy Watercolor Christmas Cards A2 sized:
I used the coordinating dies to cut out all of these images and created A2-sized cards (4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″).
I think you can probably tell that the snowman card at the top is my favorite, but they were all so much fun to create.
For the snowman and the present cards, I used the leftover Distress Stains and ink-smooshed backgrounds, which added even more of that loose, messy watercolor look.
I also used the Wonky Rectangles die on the snowman card and the A2 Notched Dies on the other two to add a little extra interest.

Messy Watercolor Christmas Cards A7:
This second set of cards is A7 sized, or 5″ x 7″.
I cut the Tim Holtz Watercolor paper a little larger and followed Tim’s excellent instructions for adding shadows and splatter to the backgrounds for some extra interest.
I matted all three cards with Tim’s Kraft Stock cardstock using the A7 Rectangle dies for that nice beveled edge finish. I love this cardstock because it has such a beautiful suede-like look.
For the snowman, I also added the mummy cloth scarf that Tim teaches you how to color during the class.
I didn’t purchase the kit (because I already had everything in it), but I didn’t have any of the “Heat and Fluff” that Heidi and Tim had so much fun playing with in class. It’s definitely on my next order, haha…
You can watch the Simon Says Stamp/Tim Holtz Messy Watercolor Class HERE:
It’s over 3 hours long, and I enjoyed every second of it.


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Cardmaking Supplies Used:
Here are the supplies I used to create today’s Messy Watercolor Christmas Cards with Tim Holtz.
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