Stampin' Up! - Using Ink for Watercolour Backgrounds

- October 03, 2020

This watercolour background is a bit of a go-to for me and I thought I would share with you how I do them for this week's post! It's actually so easy, but looks amazing 😊

Pick some colours and get a large acrylic block - smoosh some ink onto the block (you can also drop some ink from a refill bottle onto the block. I use the water painters from Stampin' Up! but you can also use a regular paint brush. You can use watercolour paper, but I have used Shimmery White cardstock for this as it holds the water painting well (regular cardstock will not).

Paint on a layer of water in the areas that you want the colour, and then I dab on some ink, and spread it out to cover where you lay the water. I dry it on the low setting with the heat tool, but you could wait for it to dry (it would make the process really long though!)

Lay down some more water in a smaller area on top of the original layer, and blot on some more ink - I try to make it darker than the first layer. Dry with the heat tool on low.

Follow the same steps for your other colours - one lighter layer, and a darker smaller layer - dry with the heat tool on low.

That's it! The watercolouring is done, so then just add whatever else you want!

By the way, if you're worried about the ink staining your water painter brush, don't be! It's so easy to clean - all I do is squeeze water through the brush for a few drops, and lay it on a paper towel (so the brush touches it). Before and after pics above!

I added some white embossed leaves, and more leaves in Petal Pink and Mint Macaron from the Forever Fern set (I stamped off first in Mint Macaron to get a lighter colour), and some of the little dots from the Whale Done set in Memento Black ink. I also did some dots in gold embossing.

I heat embossed the sentiment in gold from the Bloom & Grow set on vellum paper, and adhered it with the Stampin' Seal glue runner - I use this as you can't see it through the vellum 😀. I did a little extra watercolouring for the inside and layered it on top of Mint Macaron cardstock.

And here's the finished product! I don't always add so much to the background design as the watercolouring is very nice on its own but I decided to try something a bit different 😀

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial in pictures! If you're interested in any of the products used, the full list is below and if you click on the images, it will take you directly to the item in my store!

Happy stamping!

x Lauren