Convince me I need an Aquapainter
 

I'm not a big fan of coloring images. If I do color, I tend to use watercolor paints. But I'm thinking I need an Aquapainter so I can color with inks. How do you use this? Fill the barrel with water and use the brush to pick up color from the pad?

Paula O.

That's it. I just squish the pad while closed and then some of the ink is in the lid when you open it. Use the aquapainter to pick up the color. Looks more like watercoloring than the pencils do with no streaky lines. In the long run, much less costly than buying blending pens. I love my aquapainter!

Aqua painters are the best. I thought it would be time consuming, but I have learned that it is fast and faster than a paint brush and water because you don't have to keep dipping back and forth. I agree they are a little expensive, but I think they are a must have item!!! I sell a lot of them after I demo with them. People really seem to like them. If you are doing a lot of the same card for a swap or something, I lay out all the pieces I need to watercolor and then just paint away, it goes fast and it dries fast as long as you don't squeeze too much water out. But with a little practice that doesn't happen. I think you should order them today!!!!

Christyl

:) I LOVE my aqua painter! One of my best purchases! The right paper is important, my upline told our stamp club about using SU shimmery white. After that it hooked me even more! Love the look! You do have to play around w/it to get a feel for it, but that' just my 2�! Anyway, I think it is a must have! A friend gave me some watercolor paper and that works awesome too! :)

Is there a difference between the ones SU sells and the ones you can get elsewhere? I only want one to start with, and SU only sells them as a package of two. I thought SUs were the same as elsewhere, but a friend said she thought they were different and SUs were better. Anybody know?

I bought a set of three at a craft store and don't really like those. I bought the SU one and love it. The craft stores ones don't have a valve that controls the amount of water going to the brissles. SU's aquapainter does !!! I love mine!

I love mine and it makes coloring in a breeze. I'm now busy watercoloring 27 swaps and it's going very quickly. I promise you will love it.

I'm convinced. I don't have my catty since I'm at work. Can someone tell me how much they are? Thanks.

Paula O.

SU's are 2 (1 lg and 1 med. per pkg.) for $16.95!

AquaPainters are maaaaaaaaahvelous!!! I cannot rave enough 'bout 'em! :D

That's exactly how. I use it with my watercolor pencils and love it.

You squeeze the lid against the dye ink pad while closed, and create a little puddle of ink for you to dip the tip of your brush into. You'll see it when you open the pad--just don't slide the pad into locking position of the lid (If you're using SU! pads)

If I'm doing large quantities of watercoloring (25 images, etc.), tho I just put a drop of bottle reinker into the pad lid, and use that, squeezing a little water out of the brush to dilute it to strength I want.

I read this thread with interest because I too have been sitting on the fence over the AquaPainter. To do what you want, that is, to watercolour using inks, though, you don't *need* the AquaPainter. That's my favourite way to colour, and I just use a wet watercolour paintbrush. It works fabulously.

AND...
 

You can also scribble your marker (big end) onto plastic, foam plate, etc. and then pick up the color with the aquapainter from that. Sometimes people have more markers than ink pads so the variety is great! I use Tupperware lids for a pallete, they work great :) Others use old cd's (the key is anything that's not porous so the ink doesn't sink in).
I have 3 brands of aquapainters, and SU's is by far the best. It's made by Pentel, but I have yet to find them in a store or online!!!
Have fun!
Diane

One of my favorite uses for aquapainters (besides watercoloring) is to seal envelopes! I don't like licking envelopes! I use my aquapainter every day and I think it is so worth it!

Aquapainters are also great for wetting mulberry paper so it tears easier.

watercolour with out a tub, watercolour on the run, watercoulor with chalks, pencils (new crayons) and ink wet the edges of tourn paper seal your envies oh ther are more but those are what I use mine for. can you tell I love mine?

This mabye a silly question...but what is the difference between this and the watercolour pens? Can you not use those with the ink? (I don't have either yet...but my watercolour pens are in the mail).

I knew I shouldn't have read this thread! GRRRRR Now I want the Aquapainter. With as much watercoloring as I do you would think I have it by now. Leave to all of you to sell me on yet another item! LOL and might I say Thank you very much! :D

Get it! You'll love it
 

I normally don't "rave" about alot of items. But the aquapainter is definitely a must have. After you play around with it a little bit, you'll wonder why you never got one sooner. I tried my sisters before I bought one, and I was like why didn't I get this sooner!

Thinking outside the box
 

You can fill them with other things besides water...bleach.....future floor wax...etc for different types of projects. Very versatile tool!

I do a lot of watercoloring with my cards and thought, "Why do I want an expensive pen when I have a cup of water and a brush?" Then my demo let us use her set one night at class and I went,"Ah! That's why!" They release just enough water at just the right flow and you don't have to worry about spilling water and clean up is a snap as is the change-over to each color, just swipe it on a scratch sheet of paper until it runs clear, no swishing it in murky water and wondering if your color will be true! I LOVE them!

Now *that* is convincing response. Maybe I need one afterall.

I tell ya', all you gotta do is use it ONE TIME, and that's all the convincing it takes. Scout's honor. :D

I like my Aquapainter but the only thing i don't like is it needs cleaning between colors cause it pulls the color you are using up inside the painter.

I just colored some cards in with like a evergreen twinkling h20 and had to change it before i used the next color which was say yellow cause it put the icky green water inside of it. Unless maybe mines just broken but the color of whatever you are doing leaks inside the water to muck it up

This is odd. I've never had that happen. :confused:

Perhaps someone with more knowledge about the mechanics of these pens can enlighten us as to why that would happen with yours . . .

WHAT AN AWESOME IDEA for sealing envelopes! TFS!

I also love it with Future to use with the P-Ex. I love the shimmery look of the stuff, and this allows us to precisely color in images - and it doesn't rub off!

I heard someone complaining about this at a Rubber Stamping convention, and the demo there said that they were probably squeezing the barrel too hard, so when they let go it sucked some of the color up inside. Don't know if that helps as I haven't had this issue myself but thought I'd pass it along.

You can try finding someone to split an order of APs with you, but once you use it, you'll want the other for doing techniques like Future and PearlEx or bleach,...

In my opinion, it is THE BEST accessory in the catalog. You will NOT be sorry.

As for pulling the color into the barrel, I would agree that perhaps you are squeezing the barrel too hard. I only squeeze mine to get the water flowing before I paint. You do not have to squeeze much. Also, to clean, all I do is rub on scrap paper. Never had any problems, unlike the ones I've used from craft stores. Remember, cheap is cheap! Except in the fact that it is more expensive when you realize your mistake in going cheap.

I actually use a regular brush with my twinkling H2O's I tend to need lots of water to get them going and so it does tend to get into the brush... I still just painted on paper to get all the color when I did try the aquapainter out but I can see where rinsing it would have been faster..

I have never had this issue watercoloring with regular inks and I don't know what I would do without my aquabrush. I don't know what I ever did without one before!

I just bought my AquaPainter tonight. I got to use my demo's along with trying the new Haute couture Hostess set stamp.

Fun Fun Fun!!!

Question??
 

Ok, I'd always thought I'd buy the brand at Michael's with a coupon, but now you've all convinced me I need the SU ones. It's now on my "gotta get it" list!

Here's my question....do you need to have a pen for using with water and a "spare" for doing extra things like the Future floor wax thing? Is one package of two aquapainters enough?? Since they're two different sizes, I wasn't sure if you needed to have both sizes available for doing the water techniques or does the size not matter? Ok, I realize that's more than one question, lol.

One dumb Q...
How is the aqua painter different from using a paint brush & water? Apart from aqua painter being fast, easy clean-up, no-mess, does it affect the way the image is painted?

Easwari

the big difference for me is that you can control the water in the brush so much better... and like someone said earlier.. you don't have to clean your brush in a container of water that other colors have been in - it does make a difference.

and the easy clean up and easy paint on the go part is a HUGE plus! :D

LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM!!! I have lots of different regular paint brushes I use to apply chalk inks but use the aqua painters with all the other stuff (so I don't ruin a good brush). Better water control, no constant dipping & no more spilling. Come in a pkg of 1 at Michael's & ACM & have a feature that controls the water flow. There is a cheap version that is a package of 3 - are crap - one squeeze & I'd have a mess & the water constantly dripped while I was trying to 'paint' - there was no control feature between the brush & the barrel. I took them back. I now have 4 or 5 of the aquas (small,med & one that is flat & about 1/4w). LOVE LOVE LOVE them!!!!!!!

I use the markers for watercoloring as well and like that you can create customer colors with the pallete! You need the Aquapainters if you are watercoloring they are wonderful!

You HAVE to get one! I used one for the first time when I went to stamp with Emily and MamaK and I lOVED it!!!! It was so easy to use and I love the look it gave! I will never use the blender pen again!

Would you not use them with chalk?

the aquapainters are too wet to use with the chalk (as would be a brush and water).. the blender pen is what you would use for that. :)

Thanks!

I caved and bought one at Michael's with my 40% off coupon. Played with it a little and it was fun. I won't use it a lot so I'm glad I paid under $5. I also bought a set of 100 markers at Michael's (on sale for $12). I don't color much so these will be fine. I did say some bad words when I dropped the open box on the floor and had to pick up and put back into the carrier 100 markers!

Paula O.