Hello friends!Have you ever looked at other people’s watercolor backgrounds and wished you could do that, but it looks too hard? Today I thought I’d share an easy watercolor background technique that can take your card to the next level! Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it might sound!
There are many different ways to add in a background, but here is one that looks complicated, but is actually very easy.
Start by taping watercolor paper down to the Platform using a low tack tape. Make sure you tape the full length of all 4 sides. This will prevent warping. Then brush clean water over the whole paper. You want a nice even sheen.
Start adding in watercolor. I usually stick to 1-3 colors for this. I also like to choose one area that I want darker and one area where I don’t add any color at all- this will give nice contrast to your background however, try not to get too dark in any area. Don’t get stressed out by this step. Just have fun. Imagine you are a little kid- there’s no right or wrong. There’s no “perfect” to achieve… It’s just paint and paper.
(I used River Rock from Dusty Bee and Dark Planet from Masha’s but you can use any colors you want.)
This is the tricky part. When you are happy with your colors, you need to watch your paper. When it has an even sheen of wet, but no puddles, sprinkle a little salt over the paper. Less is more here, so don’t get carried away. I like to use course salt, but you can use regular table salt as well.
If your paper is too wet when you add the salt, the salt will dissolve and not do much. If your paper is too dry, the salt won’t do anything either. You have to find the sweet spot.
Set your Platform aside and let your paper dry completely. DO NOT try to speed this up with a heat tool. Let the salt do it’s thing naturally.
When the paper is complete dry, you should be able to rub your fingers gently across the surface to remove all the salt.
This is how mine turned out. Yours will look different. This is one of those techniques you just have to go with the flow of what you get. You can’t control it. Each time you do it, it will be different.
Some things worth noting- The paint (both brand and color), the paper, and the salt can all make a difference in the end result. Some paints have strong reactions to salt (see that purple in mine?), others don’t. Some give you a snowflake look… there’s lots of variable, so experiment! Each background will be unique!
Next we are going to stamp our flower over top of our background. I’m using the LDRS Creative Delicate Stems stamp which is a larger stamp, so I needed to move my paper off the platform and into the MISTI. I like using Inkon3 Fadeout ink to stamp my flowers for the no line look, but you can stamp yours in black ink if you prefer.
Once you have your image stamped, move your paper back to the Platform and tape it down again so you can paint your flowers. Yep, right over the background! You will see some of the background show through on the flower- especially where the petals are lighter and the background is darker. As long as you kept your background relatively light, and your flower color darker, you should be fine. I used the same purple from my background to paint the flowers (though I used less water so it is darker), a darker teal (Moody Blue from Dusty Bee), and a dark brown (Cassel Brown from Deep Deep Light)
Adding a sentiment is easy with the MISTI Lite. This is one of the reasons I love painting on the Platform! I chose a sentiment from the Beautiful Things set from Gina K. Designs.
You’ll notice once I start adding in more of the darker colors in the flowers, the background starts looking much lighter. This a fun little optical illusion that happens because your eyes see color by comparing to things around it. When the background paint is the only thing on the paper, it looks dark compared to the paper. When there’s darker images on the paper, the background starts looking lighter.
Happy painting!
Kassi
My Sweet Petunia Products:
Petunia Platform
MISTI
MISTI Lite
Power Mag
Paper: Arches Cold Press
Ink: Fadeout & Blackout (Inkon3)
Stamps: Delicate Stems (LDRS Creative), Beautiful Things (Gina K. Designs)
Color: River Rock, Moody Blue (Dusty Bee), Dark Planet (Masha’s), Cassel Brown (Deep Deep Light)
Other: salt, black pen
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