One of my favourite ways to use Stampin’ Up! refills is to create a soft watercolour background card to stamp on. Not only is it especially pretty, I love that it’s so easy and inexpensive to make! With very few supplies for watercolour backgrounds, they go together super quickly and they will earn you rave reviews – every time! My colour choices are Pink Pirouette, Sahara Sand and Crumb Cake for this beauty. I think they combined pretty well. What do you think?

See what a short list of supplies you need for this technique?

• Refills (the Subtles family work really well)
• Watercolour paper
• Aquapainter with clean water

When I start to play like this, I find it hard to stop!  So I make sure I have lots of watercolour paper on hand to keep going.  I either watercolour one larger piece of watercolour paper all at once then cut it down to size or I cut my pieces first.  This one is a larger cut down sheet once I decided what size I wanted my card to be. Here are some tips to keep in mind when you create a soft watercolour background:

• be sure to clean off your aqua painter before you start.  Do this by lightly brushing it on a paper towel until the water is clear.
• put a dot of reinker into the lid of your stamp pad or a paint palette to begin
• put a puddle of clean water onto the watercolour paper as large as you want it to be
• drop in one colour at a time to the water and watch it spread
• clean your aqua painter between colours
• let your background dry fully before stamping in a coordinating ink

I’ll bet once you get going you won’t want to stop either! Make a bunch so you always have a few backgrounds on hand to pull out to stamp your greeting. Here’s another TIP.  When you make multiple backgrounds, write the colours you used on the back in light pencil to coordinate the rest of your card without having to try and remember!  Yes, that is the voice of experience talking!

While I could have just matted the stamped background and popped my card in the mail, I wanted to add some more pizzazz. And as many of you know I’m a ribbon gal! So what better way to dress it up than with soft gold satin and gold natural ribbons and a sparkly embellishment? The ribbons are just folded in half and adhered with glue dots for a secure finish.  (I used three glue dots, one for each ribbon and then one for the Falling in Love embellishment.) Have you seen and felt this satin ribbon? It’s beautifully soft and flexible, and has a wonderful sheen. I’ve picked up a couple rolls of both the silver and gold so when they’re retired in a few weeks, I’ll still be able to glam up cards, packages and bags. I got them for a super deal at 40% off the regular price. That makes them only 15 cents a foot!  I used about 5 inches on this card so it’s a super inexpensive way to add dazzle to your cards without adding bulk or cost!

You Can Make It Too

You may remember the totally different background look I achieved with this card a few weeks ago. While still “soft”, it’s a slightly different technique with much more boldness.  Isn’t it amazing what a little bit of water, your ink refills and stamps can accomplish? If you haven’t given watercolouring a try yet, what are you waiting for?  I’ll bet you have most of the supplies at home already.  Pull them out, get some water and see what a pretty and soft watercolour background you can dream up!