Hi everyone, it’s Michelle here! Today I have a card that is really easy to recreate – it has a simple design and is easily adaptable with the supplies you will most likely already have on hand!
Basically, you can make this card with just watercolors and a sentiment stamp. The stamp I’m using is from the awesome Birthday Wishes set from Pink and Main, which has a TON of birthday sentiments – and I’m always in need of those!
You can use ANY watercolors you have – I used one of those really cheap $5 sets that have the little circle cakes of color. If you have a fancier set, go for that if you want! If you don’t have watercolors, but maybe have Distress Inks, you can make a “watercolor” by combining the Distress Ink with water on a slick surface.
And the best part is, you don’t really need any special painting skills – just swipe stripes of color across some watercolor paper with a big round brush! You can add layers of the same color for more intensity if you want. I went with a rainbow color scheme, but you can try doing this in monochrome with just one color, or ever better – use the favorite colors of the recipient!
After letting the watercolor dry, I heat embossed my sentiment with white embossing powder. If you do this beforehand, the embossing will “resist” the watercolor and will still show up, but I felt it was better to heat emboss afterwards for this card. This way, the watercolor didn’t stain the embossing, which happens sometimes. Also, I didn’t have to worry about placement of the stripes because it’s easier to position the sentiment onto an existing painted stripe. Hope that makes sense 🙂
To finish off, I trimmed off the sides a bit, then mounted it to one side of a dark grey cardstock base with foam adhesive. I also added a teeny strip of striped gold washi under the panel. Finally, I added some clear star stickers from Freckled Fawn – I like how since they’re clear, they pick up color from the stripes. They’re subtle but add dimension. You can also embellish with wood veneers, sequins, buttons, etc. Like I said, it’s easy to use what you have for this card!