A New Watercolor Background Technique for the Countryside Fence Frame by Anne Thompson

I made two cards for today using a new-to-me watercolor background technique called Sgraffito.  Sgraffito is a a form of decoration made by scratching through a surface to reveal a lower layer of a contrasting color, typically done in plaster or stucco on walls, or in slip on ceramics before firing.  For the two cards below I used a common sewing pin to scratch the surface of watercolor paper before applying one color of paint to get a similar effect.

For the card on the right I used a pin to scratch random lines into the watercolor paper before adding paint.

In this close-up  you can see the detail of the scratches once watercolor has been added.  That one layer of paint pools in the scratches to make darker lines against the background color.

For the card on the left, I used a ruler to help me scratch straight parallel lines at an angle to represent rain before adding the blue watercolor paint.

Now let's look at how I finished each card.  Since the rain is right above this, let's look at that one first.  

• I cut the piece of rain paper into a square that would fit behind the frame I wanted to use.
• I chose the COUNTRYSIDE FENCE FRAME 94034 and cut it from some lime green cardstock.
• While the paper was still in the die I applied double-sided Scor-Tape to the frames to keep them together.
• I removed the tape backing and applied the frame to the rain paper.
• I cut the Countryside Fence Frame again, this time from white cardstock.  I snipped off the fence and used a glue pen to adhere it on top of the green fence.
• I cut the VINTAGE WATERING CAN 99956 from silver cardstock and popped it onto the frame at an angle to look like the rain was coming from it.
• I then added some tiny flowers with glue dots to fill the bottom of the frame and spill over onto the card front.

For the second card, I used most of the same procedures.  The green scratched paper had me thinking about the deep woods, so I die cut the DELICATE PINE FRAME 94031 from dark green cardstock and snipped off the tree.  I adhered the tree to the left of the Countryside Fence Frame.

This is another fun and easy technique for backgrounds as it also adds texture as well as color.  These two cards will go into my all-occasion box with appropriate sentiments to be added as needed.  

Happy Crafting!

Comments

[Nancy Yoder]

What a simple technique, but you presented to all! The way the watercolors catch into the crevasse of watercolor paper really does give depth! Thank you Ann.

[Barbara-Jean]

What a great background idea!

[annie]

goodness, what a fabulous technique and so easy, got to try this one..xx

[Cynthia D]

Looks easy enough, I think I'll give it a try!