So, what are good paints and good papers, you ask? Here are my recommendations:
1.  Academy Grumbacher tubes -
     As a general rule, tubed paints are much better than those palettes with dry paint circles that you add water to.
     Academy Grumbacher is a student grade paint, so it is not terribly expensive, they last a super long time, and they have beautiful vibrant colors.
2.  Papers:
     Hot press papers are smooth, cold press papers are rough. The rougher the paper, the harder it is to stamp a clear image on it. I like a little texture on my papers, so I don't always buy hot press. Here are my favorites:
a. Arches 90lb Hot Press
b. Strathmore Aquarius II
They can be found at fine art stores and Michaels.

Wet-on-Wet Technique

Wet-on-wet means that you will be applying wet paint to wet paper.

First, make a watery mixture of your flower color (in my case purple). Do this by making a little water puddle and pulling in a bit of paint into it. If you have the dry paint kind of watercolors, then add some water and make a thin paint puddle.

Second, rinse your brush. Paint WATER on one of the petals. This gets the paper wet and ready for paint.

Next, grab some paint with your brush, dab it on the paper towel lightly to remove excess water, and paint a line around the edges of the petal. If you embossed it, the embossing works as a barrier so the paint doesn't bleed outside the petal.
You should see the paint "bleed" towards the middle of the petal because the paper was wet!

If it doesn't have a soft feathery edge, rinse your brush, and rub it on the edges of the painted area to soften it. pull it towards the center of the petal. If the whole petal gets colored in and you have no white, simply dab your paper towel in the center and it will pick up some paint. The white(lighter) part is your light source.

Continue painting all petals this way.

Finished Petals
The paper is slightly "dirtied" because I used a very fine embossing powder and it sticks to this paper! No matter, we are painting over it!

Like the name implies, this means you will paint wet paint on dry paper. So basically, you skip the step of painting water on the paper before applying paint.

We will do the leaves with this technique:
1. make thin paint/water puddle with a green paint. I used sap green (similar to olive green).
2. paint this mixture evenly on each leaf.

We will learn a very easy but effective background in this class. It will look like a "sponge painting" or parchment paper effect.

1. Wet the background you want to paint
2. Paint a thin mixture of paint over it  (I used yellow ochre)
3. Quickly dab it with a paper towel. This will lift up some of the paint and create the "sponge painting" effect.

More Advanced Techniques

I. Backgrounds
    a. Try sprinkling salt on your painted background while it is still wet. This creates a nice splotchy effect.
    b. Try putting crinkled saran wrap over the wet painted background and letting it dry with a book over it. The paint will pull away from the saran wrap wrinkles. Very cool!

II. Shadows and lights
     a. Be very careful not to lose all your white! we don't paint with white, so you must preserve the paper's white! the watercolors should be transparent, so if you apply too much paint,   quickly dab it with a paper towel and it will lift some paint. This is a good way to add a "light source" to your painting. (see the iris petals above)
 
     b. You can "layer" colors to achieve lights and shadows:
          - paint a thin blue wash over the purple areas you want to put in the shadows.
          - paint a very thin red wash over the petal areas you want to add "sunlight" to.
          - paint a thin yellow wash over the leaf areas you want to highlight.
          - paint a brown wash over the green leaves you want to darken/shadow.
 
      Good examples of these can be found in my watercolor tutorial found at: http://www.ink-n-rubberstamps.com/card_gallery/watercolor_technique.html

Colored Pencil Techniques

I will cover some very basics about painting with watercolor pencils. The same applies when paper is concerned. Use good watercolor paper! See the beginning of the class to get the details.

The pencils have a  lot of pigment, so you don't need to color too "hard". When you add water, the color will darken significantly. Unlike painting with watercolor paints, I prefer NOT to wet the paper beforehand.

Apply pencil lightly to the stamped image. With a thin brush, paint water (lightly) over colored area. The pencil pigment will dissolve creating a watercolor effect. While the paint is still wet, you should be able to "push" and "pull" it into the desired areas. This will allow you to make darker and lighter areas.

If you paint on "regular non-watercolor paper", sometimes the paint dries too fast, and the pencil marks show. With good watercolor paper, this should be minimized.

To add a layer of color to an already painted area, I prefer to wait until the area is dry, apply the new color over the old one, and wet it with the brush. These layers or glazes should be pretty thin to keep the transparency of the piece.

The techniques of "lifting" paint with a paper towel are not quite as effective with pencils, so be careful of how much color you apply!

Now that you are armed with all of these new techniques, go paint!