Liquid Watercolors on Yupo

Good morning! Jess here with a random assortment of cards using a really fun technique! A few months ago I shared a card here using Bold Ink pads on Yupo paper...and a few weeks ago I heard a rumor that you could use liquid watercolors on Yupo for a similar effect to alcohol inks, and you know I just HAD to give it a try!  And it is AMAZING!! As you can see, I couldn't stop with just one card! The only difference is that the liquid watercolors take longer to dry than the alcohol inks but as long as you have some patience, the results are well worth the wait!

For my first card I dropped a 1-2 drops of Strawberry and Dandelion liquid watercolors onto a piece of Yupo paper and used a blending felt to drag the watercolors across the paper. It lightens the colors and where the red and yellow meet you get a really pretty soft orange shade! 

I set it aside to dry and die-cut the giraffe and grass with black cardstock. I also die-cut the thorn tree from black cardstock and used partial die-cutting to keep the top of the tree attached to the card panel. I stamped the sentiment with Versamark and heat-embossed it with gold embossing powder. Once the background dried I adhered the black cardstock over it to create a simple but striking card.

My second card uses a similar technique but with more liquid watercolors to create a rainbow effect. I used Purple, Strawberry, Dandelion, Moss, Deep Ocean, Indigo, and Mulled Wine and blended them with a little movement to create the curves and swoops of the watercolor. Once it dried I heat-embossed the dandelion with silver glitter embossing powder.  

I love the way the colors blended to create that rainbow effect!! I trimmed the Yupo paper down and adhered it to a black card base. I stamped the sentiment on black cardstock with Versamark and heat-embossed it with silver embossing powder. I trimmed it down to create a fishtail banner and adhered it to the card with foam mounting tape.

My next three cards use the similar rainbow palette. I just varied the dies and sentiments used! For the first card I die-cut the Yupo with the Bold Graphic Confetti die. I layered that over a white card base and then adhered a heart die-cut from vellum. I stamped the sentiment onto the heart with Versamark and heat-embossed it with detail black embossing powder. Finally I die-cut the 'love' word from black cardstock and adhered it to the heart.

For the next two cards I die-cut the rainbow Yupo paper with the Window on Love Confetti die and reserved all of the hearts.

I adhered the heart panel to a white card based and added the kindness sentiment die cut from black cardstock.  For the other card I adhered a bunch of the hearts in rainbow order on a black card base and added a sentiment heat-embossed in silver from the Love Stamp & Cut set. I finished that card with a few sparkly gems in matching colors.

My last card is probably my favorite but it definitely took the longest time to dry.

For this one I swiped Deep Ocean, Indigo, Purple, and Black liquid watercolors onto Yupo paper. As I was blending I added Iridescent Shimmer Spray to give an overall subtle shimmer to the liquid watercolors. After I finished blending I immediately sprayed the paper with more Iridescent Shimmer Spray for a little more dimension. Finally I unscrewed the cap and splattered on larger drops of shimmer spray which created that really interesting starry effect. I love the halos around the large dots. I think the spray was what changed the consistency and drying time of the liquid watercolors. The end result was a much glossier texture and it did take overnight to dry. But it was REALLY worth waiting in my opinion!

To finish this card I started by die-cutting the Skylines dies with black cardstock and silver glitter cardstock. I also die-cut the Hello Stamp & Cut from silver glitter cardstock. I stamped the rest of the sentiment onto black cardstock and heat-embossed it with white embossing powder. I trimmed that down to a fishtail banner and then adhered everything over the Yupo background. Finally I trimmed the Yupo paper down and adhered it to a black card base!

I hope this gives you some new ideas on how to use your liquid watercolors!  Thanks so much for stopping by and reading through my long post! ;) Have a wonderful day!!