Watercolor Wash Background

Yesterday I shared with you a tag I made for the Coffee Lover’s Blog Hop. I wanted to keep with the coffee theme today and create a card. I’ve had this idea to use the “Tea Cups 2” set from Two Paper Divas to create a really fun background and I finally got around to doing it! You can watch the video below to see how I used a watercolor wash combined with the emboss resist technique to create this fun coffee inspired card!

ENJOY!!

I started with a piece of 4″ x 5 1/4″ watercolor paper, I would eventually cut this down to 4″ x 4″, so whichever you prefer to start with will work. Using the Tea Cups 2 stamp I inked it up with Versamark ink and after prepping my paper with an embossing bag I stamped it down. After quickly masking off the top of the stamped image with a post it note I inked up the stamp again and stamped it down so it appeared to continue on with the stack of cups. I sprinkled on some clear embossing powder and heat set the images. To create the entire background I kept repeating the process across the paper until it appeared to be filled with stacks of cups.

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For my watercolor I decided to use Distress Inks. I simply smooshed each ink pad onto my pallet which is just a piece of white cardstock that I’ve laminated. After adding a few drops of water to each color and completely saturating my watercolor paper with water I started dropping in the ink. I kept randomly applying the colors to the paper until it was completely filled. Because I had heat embossed the cups, the embossed areas resisted all the watercolor and stayed completely white allowing the images to show through the colors. When I was happy with the intensity of my colors I used my heat tool to speed up the drying process.

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To finish off my card I first cut a 2″ circle from a piece of olive cardstock and then made a 2″ x 3 1/4″ banner from kraft cardstock. (Watch the video for further instructions on that process). I built up a sentiment that read “Birthday Wishes Just for You” and stamped those on the banner with black dye ink. With all my components done I could put the complete card together by adhering the watercolor panel to a 4″ x 4″ top folding card base, then attaching the circle in the center of the base with fun foam and the same double sided adhesive. I put down the banner in the center of the circle, again, with double sided adhesive. Finally I attached a few gold sequins using my Quickstik tool and Glossy Accents to secure them.

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This was a fun (and messy) card to make! I hope you too will create a watercolor wash background, try some emboss resist or combine the two like I did.

If you’re interested in any of the supplies I used on today’s card you can find them all linked below. Thanks so much for stopping by today!! Happy Crafting!!