Easy Watercolor Background

Watercolor backgrounds can seem intimidating, but here's a way to easily create a watercolor background using an acrylic block. You know those clear plastic blocks you adhere your stamps to? Those are the secret to a beautiful background. 

For this card, I used three ink colors: Mango Melody, Flirty Flamingo, and Poppy Parade. 

I started with a clean, E block by Stampin' Up! This block is almost the size of a card front. 

I inked the top portion of the block with Mango Melody. Then I inked the center portion with Flirty Flamingo. It's ok to overlap them a bit. This is why I started with the lightest color, so I didn't get Flirty Flamingo on my Mango Melody ink pad or Poppy Parade on my Flirty Flamingo ink pad. I finished by apply Poppy Parade on the bottom of the acrylic block. 

This leaves a pretty rainbow on your acrylic block. You could stamp it just like this, but it wouldn't have that same watercolor look. Instead, I spritzed it 4-5 times with a little water. Then I tilted the block up and down to allow the colors to run into each other a little bit. 

Now the really fun part! Stamp your block directly on your paper. When you lift up, you will have a background that looks like you watercolored it. I recommend using a heavier cardstock like watercolor paper or Shimmer White cardstock by Stampin' Up!

After the background dried, I stamped the flower images from A Friend Like You stamp set using Soft Suede ink for the stems and Blackberry Bliss for the flowers. I trimmed out the stamped area leaving an even border around the edges.

I used the Friendly Silhouette dies to cut out the flower silhouette from Soft Suede cardstock. The die-cut image is longer than the stamped image. 

I folded the edges of the die-cut image so that it was just a little longer than the stamped scene, about 1/8-1/4" longer. Then, I put adhesive on just these folded ends and adhered the strip to the bottom of the stamped scene. While the die-cut was a little longer than the stamped background, I lined the edges up exactly. This allows the silhouette to pop out from the card a little and gives it dimension. 

I finished it off by mounting the image on a piece of Mango Melody and then a card base of Soft Suede.

Here's another sample using some very old Stampin' Up! product: One of a Kind stamp set and matching punch in Bordering Blue and Night of Navy ink and cardstock.

​And one last sample using Coastal Cabana and Gorgeous Grape inks and cardstock. I finished this one off using the Well Said stamp set and Well Written dies. 

I'd love to see your creations using this technique. Drop an image in the comments below!