Watercolour Cards by Michelle Logan

Hi Everyone, 

it's Michelle here, sharing a 2 quick and easy techniques to create water coloured cards. 

So here are the first 2 cards all finished and ready to be sent:

And here are the easy steps to create that water colour background.

Tape down your paper to create a border and minimise warp. I have used Hot pressed watercolour paper (300gsm) so it is a smooth texture, as I wanted the stamped image to be sharp.

Then stamp your desired image using black Archival Ink or Stazon so that it does not react with the water you will be adding in the next few steps. If you have no such ink stamp you image after you have created the background. 

 

Now lets add some colour!

I have made easy to use little colour cakes using Colour Mica Powders, water and Gum Arabic. The palette is easily activated by spraying with water and I do not have to mess with powders every time I want to create. 

Activate the colours you wish to use by spraying with water. For these cards I used: Olive Grove, Polar and Cool Mint.

Onto the dry paper add the colours using loose strokes of the brush. If you want the colours to "move" on the paper add a spritz of water.

Add splashes of water to create splats across all the colours.

Add a few splashes of white using watered down Gesso and a fan brush, this adds depth to the piece.

Once dry, peel off the tape and cut to size, I like adding a scratchy border with a fineliner, I feel it finishes it off, purely optional though of course!

 

Mount your card on black card stock and you are almost done.

 

I felt they needed some more of that white so I went to town with the splatters of Gesso and then made some stamped circles with a piece of tubing I had lying around.

Time to embellish! I used Chippies here with Stormy Weather Colour Embossing Powder, I think I did a couple of layers on them. Oh look you can see how I keep track of the products I use up the top of this shot....such professional record keeping!

Attach the chippies, I have also added a few dots of Perfect Pearls.

Glue onto your card and all is done! 

Here are a couple of shots of the finished cards:

Now the next cards are done in a similar way, this time on a wet substrate.

Lets get to it!

I stamped my images as I did in the last lot of cards.  Once dry, spritz with water and splash around some colour.

This time I used Colour Shimmer Dust in Lollipop and Amber. I put the powder on my palette then added water and used a brush to "spread" the paint around.

                                              

Add more water and move the paper around to create drips, like stems of the flowers.

I added a few drops of Bling Colour Shimmer Spray to add some shine.

I added a border like last time  and a few squiggly stems and leaves with a fineliner.

Mount on black card stock, add some embossed chippy pieces (this time embossed with Bling Colour Embossing Powder), some dots of Perfect Pearls and you are done!

Heres a few more pics:

Well that's it from me for today, hope you give the powders a shot they are so much fun!