Watercolor Background Created with Classic Ink Refills

 It's nice to do something out of my comfort zone. I love the look of watercolor. I like to create watercolor backgrounds for my cards. After they dry, I stamp images or scenes on top. Watch my tutorial video and see how I create backgrounds. 

For my cards I'm sharing today, I used watercolor paper, classic ink refills and water painters. You can use regular paint brushes and water if you don't have the water painters. I like them because the tube handle holds water and it makes it easy to add water to my paper or ink. The stamps I used are retired. What stamps do you have in your collection that would work with watercolored backgrounds?

To create the backgrounds I used a piece of fluid 100 watercolor paper by Stampin' Up!® (3 1/2 x 5"). I squeezed a small amount of ink from various classic ink refills onto my glass mat. I added water to the background and then picked up ink off my glass mat with a water painter. I touched the ink to the wet paper and let the ink move around. You can watch this process in the video tutorial below. Once you're finished adding ink to your background, it needs to dry completely before you stamp anything on it. 

The background on this card was created with Balmy Blue, Misty Moonlight, Peach Pie, Timid Tiger, Cajun Craze, Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake and Mossy Meadow classic inks and a large water painter.  I love a good sunset and the colors I choose reminded me of a sunset we saw at the lake. 

I decided to recreate one of my favorite views at the lake- a small island. I used Crumb Cake and Mossy Meadow to watercolor a small island. After I dried my paper with my heat tool, I stamped the cluster of trees from Campology stamp set (retired) in Old Olive classic ink. I used a stamp positioner and stamped it several times. To fill in the trees a bit I used Mossy Meadow classic ink and a small water painter (brush) to add green in the leaves. I add Crumb Cake classic ink to the tree trunks.

For the water around my island, I used Balmy Blue and Misty Moonlight classic inks and a water painter. I kept the darker Misty Moonlight ink closer to the shore. The layer was adhered to a Secret Sea cardstock base (8 1/2 x 5 1/2" folded in half). You can add a white cardstock layer (3 3/4 x 5") on the inside with your message. I love how this turned out. You can see me make this card in the video below. I decided to leave it as is without a greeting. What occasion would you use this card for?

For my next card, I used less colors and created a stormy sky. I used Balmy Blue and Misty Moonlight classic ink refills and a large water painter brush. I left a little white area between the sky and my water. For the water I added more Misty Moonlight than Balmy Blue. I tried to create some dark areas to give the water movement. 

The lighthouse, boat and birds are from the Sailing Home stamp set (retired). After my background was dry, I stamped the birds in Secret Sea classic ink. The boat is stamped in Basic Gray classic ink and the lighthouse is stamped in Crumb Cake and Pecan Pie classic inks. The lighthouse is watercolored in with Crumb Cake and Pecan Pie classic inks.  Originally I used just browns but it seems too bright for the scene. So I went back after my card was done and added a little Basic Gray and Secret Sea classic inks to the lighthouse. The boat bottom is colored in with a Basic Gray watercolor pencil and the sails are colored with a white watercolor pencil. 

I dried the paper well before stamping the greeting from High Tide stamp set (retired). I used a stamp positioner to stamp the greeting in Secret Sea classic ink. The layer was adhered to a Cloud Cover cardstock base ( 8 1/2 x 5 1/2", folded in half).

I really enjoyed creating these cards live on my Facebook Coffee and a Card video. You can watch the replay below. 

Here's another card I created with sunset colors. I was a bit heavy handed when I added ink for the ground but I love how it turned out.  I like the shapes that are created when you watercolor. For this card I used the Campology stamp set (retired) and created the background just like I did for the card in the video. This background used Balmy Blue, Peach Pie, Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake and Mossy Meadow classic inks. You can use the refills or press a clean block into your ink pad to pick up ink. 

I hope you give this a try and create your own watercolor backgrounds.  Just make sure your layer is dry before you stamp your images. If it's wet, the ink may spread. Which may look really neat depending on what you want it to look like. 

You can find fluid 100 watercolor paper, classic ink pads, refills, watercolor pencils, and water painters in my online store. 

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. I hope you're inspired to give a watercolor background a try. Please let me know in the comments which card is your favorite. 

Happy Creating!

~ Beth