Card: Watercolor Background


Welcome to my blog, Paper Crafting With Rebecca! 

I enjoy how watercolor paints move on paper. The liquidity, the organic nature of the outcome, the variety of available color combinations all merge to form a beautiful and relaxing way to create a lovely background for a simple card. No two cards ever come out the same so you can honestly know that the recipient of the card is truly receiving a "one of a kind" piece of art.

There is also something exciting about sitting down to a blank piece of watercolor paper. What will it become? How will the colors merge? Oh the anticipation...


Supplies for this 5" x 5" card "recipe" are:

Base cards: A sheet of White Daisy Cardstock cut into two 5" x 10" each pieces.
Card layers: Watercolor Paper and White Daisy Cardstock scraps leftover from cutting down the base cards.
Watercolor Paints: You can use these watercolor paints or any you already have on hand.
Tools: Brushes, a cup of clean water, and some sort of adhesive (such as Bonding Memories Broad Tip Glue Pen).

Start with cutting your 12" x 12" watercolor paper in half, then cut one of the halves in half so you end up with two 6" x 6" squares (save your other 6" x 12" piece for a future project). Tape your two squares down to a cutting board so that you will be able to move them out of the way to dry and so they will dry flat. I use blue painter's tape because it is easy to remove once the painting is dry.

Now, have fun! For the technique I used, I first wet the paper using a flat brush and clean water. I then simply started dropping in the watercolor with a round #8 brush, keeping the paper fairly "juicy" so the colors would flow. There is no right or wrong way to color you paper... that is the beauty of this technique, you simply play with the water and colors until you come up with a combination you think is beautiful.


The hardest part is setting them aside to dry. You can't rush this part. Yes, you could take a blow dryer to them, but then the blowing air tends to move the paints a bit more than I prefer, so I use this as an exercise in patience and let mine air dry.

The outcomes of naturally drying can be beautiful and ethereal...



Next, remove the tape and trim them to 5" x 5". They are now ready to become card backgrounds.

For the pink card I used my versatile Thin Cuts - Block Alphabet to cut out the word "HUGS" using my Cricut Cuttlebug. I like to think that even if I can't be there in person to "hug" my friends I can send them a "hug" in the mail! (After all, isn't that what a handmade card is... a hug made out of paper?) I also used a die to cut a square out of my base card for the watercolor to show through. You can use any die (or hand cut) opening you want to... such as a heart on Valentine's Day, or a pumpkin or a Christmas tree... etc.


Next came the easy assembly process. I used my Bonding Memories Broad Tip Glue Pen to build my card with because of it's ease to work with and the ability to move my letters around to get them perfectly straight before it bonds permanently. Then I made an envelope using my punch board to match one of the colors in my watercolor painting.


For the blue card, I used a lot of the same techniques... I simply used a different die. I wanted to make sure the "Happy Birthday" stood up for some added dimension, so I cut three of them and glue/stacked them together.



Again, once the card was all glued together I made an envelope to match. I did not add a lot of embellishments to distract from the watercolor of these cards. I like the simple beauty of the watercolored background against the pure white of the White Daisy Cardstock. What do you think?




Thank you for reading my blog and please feel free to leave me comments and/or questions below.

Happy Paper Crafting!
Rebecca


Comments

  1. Beautiful colors! I agree, the simple construction really highlights the watercolors.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comment, I will try to reply as soon as possible.