If this technique has a name, “Easy” should be in it somewhere! To get that beautiful watercolored background, all you need is an acrylic block (I used size D), some markers and a spray bottle. Brian Pilling showed us this technique at Leadership, promoting the idea of a simple, one-layer card. I used some layers on my card, but this is still a very quick card to make.
For the background, color your acrylic block with the brush end of the markers, making bands of color on the block. Cover the whole block – I like to use my lightest color first so if I touch the ink with a darker marker it doesn’t matter. Lightly mist the colored surface with water – I use about three pumps on my bottle, but it produces a very fine mist. Then press the block to Whisper White cardstock. That’s it!
The colors on the card above are Strawberry Slush, Calypso Coral, and Crisp Cantaloupe. My spray bottle is just a cheap travel-size spray bottle from a discount store. An empty travel-size hair spray bottle would work well. Let your background dry thoroughly (or dry it with the heat tool) before stamping images over it. I masked the sides of my background with Post-its before adding the image from So Very Grateful, stamped with StazOn ink.
I made the same card in Pear Pizzazz, Coastal Cabana, and Bermuda Bay with a few extra touches, but nothing difficult or time-consuming. Just little touches of gold from the Sequin Trim and Washi Tape and that great Sale-a-bration twine!
I also want to introduce a new photopolymer set that was released this week, Sans and Stripes. This set includes two alphabets that can be used as two-step stamps or simply used interchangeably, i.e. you can make those double letters you need in words like HAPPY!
