Video: Two Watercolor Techniques for Any Cardmaker

Hello Crafters! It's Kelly Taylor here and today I'm sharing two different watercolor techniques you can use for beautiful backgrounds. 

(If you are having trouble viewing this video, please watch it HERE on YouTube.)

The first step to creating these beautiful watercolor cards is the Flower Market Bold Prints stamp. I stamped it onto our Luxe Watercolor Paper using Unicorn Pigment Ink. I then sprinkled on some White Detail Embossing Powder and heat set it until smooth. 

When you choose your colors for this technique it's important to choose colors that work well together when mixing. For the first card I used Reactive Inks in Splash, Taffy, Berry Smoothie, Grape Slush and Blue Raspberry for the first background. For the second card I used Brights Pink, Brights PurpleIndigo, Dark Teal, and Mulled Wine from our line of Liquid Watercolors. 

For the first card I took my ink pads direct to paper. I smooshed them on randomly until the entire background was covered and then sprayed it with water to get the pigment moving. Watercolors always dry back lighter so for this background I did the ink pad smooshing twice for more intense color. 

The Liquid Watercolors are so highly pigmented I knew the color would be more intense to begin with. I first sprayed down my background with clean water and then dropped in drops of color. I added more water and used a paint brush to move the pigments around. 

While both cards were still wet I spattered on some White Iridescent Shimmer Spray. Adding this while the backgrounds are wet allows the shimmer to spread out into the pigments creating lots of beautiful shine. While my backgrounds were drying I used the Compact Cutter to die cut my sentiments. I used the Happy Thanks Stamp & Cut XL for both cards, cutting each out of Dove White cardstock twice and Pitch Black cardstock once. I also heat embossed my sub-sentiments and trimmed them into labels. 

Once the backgrounds were dry I went in with Copic markers and added some dimension before trimming down the panels and building my cards. I used foam adhesive to pop up the backgrounds and adhered the sentiments with Precision Glue. For some additional shine I added Sparkle Lacquer to a few flower centers and accented the sentiments with Hero Pearls in Pewter

Thank you so much for joining me today! I hope you're inspired to try one or both of these techniques with your Bold Prints soon! 

Click on products to shop:
CG907 Flower Market Bold Prints |...
[ HA ]
DC282 Happy Thanks Stamp & Cut XL |...
[ HA ]
AF249 Unicorn Pigment Ink | Hero Arts
[ HA ]
AF430 Berry Smoothie Reactive Ink |...
[ HA ]
AF420 Taffy Reactive Ink | Hero Arts
[ HA ]
AF427 Blue Raspberry Reactive Ink |...
[ HA ]
AF428 Splash Reactive Ink | Hero Arts
[ HA ]
AF432 Grape Slush Reactive Ink | Hero...
[ HA ]
PD136 Liquid Watercolor Neon Brights...
[ HA ]
PD121 Liquid Watercolor Dark Teal |...
[ HA ]
PD114 Liquid Watercolor Indigo | Hero...
[ HA ]
PD137 Liquid Watercolor Neon Brights...
[ HA ]
PD112 Liquid Watercolor Mulled Wine |...
[ HA ]
PS781 Luxe White Watercolor Paper |...
[ HA ]
PW122 White Detail Embossing Powder |...
[ HA ]
PS325 Hero Hues Dove white | Hero Arts
[ HA ]
PS323 Hero Hues Premium Cardstock...
[ HA ]
NK441 Pewter Hero Pearls | Hero Arts
[ HA ]
WM151 White Iridescent Shimmer Mist |...
[ HA ]
NK351 Sparkle Clear Lacquer Pen |...
[ HA ]
GW101 Precision Glue | Hero Arts
[ HA ]
HT100 Hero Tools Compact Cutter...
[ HA ]

  • Carol McDavid

    Lovely, did both versions today, turned out great!

  • Elaine H

    Beautiful cards! Thank you for taking the time to show us your technique.

  • Patricia E Wilson

    These two cards are lovely and the water coloring technique is great. I think I could do that. Thanks for sharing all your great tips and techniques.

  • Patricia E Wilson

    These two cards are lovely and the water coloring technique is great. I think I could do that. Thanks for sharing all your great tips and techniques.