Quick and Easy Watercolor Backgrounds by Laura Fulcher

Greetings friends. I wanted to share a couple of quick and easy cards that use simple watercolor backgrounds as a backdrop for my die cuts. I like to pair the watercolors with solid die cuts because they show up really well, even if you have lots of different colors in the back. Here is a second card:

To make both cards, I started with Memory Box watercolor paper and taped it to my work surface using washi tape. I like washi tape because it is very low tac and tends not to tear your paper. (Hint..the washi I use to hold down watercolor paper and then use it again on envelopes I mail for a decorative element). It is a good idea to tape down the paper so that it doesn't curl when you work on it. You might also want to tape it down on some heavy cardstock so that you can easily move it to the side as it dries.

Once my paper was taped, I wet the paper with water and a brush to whatever shape I desired. For both cards, I made a rectangle. In this picture, I slightly tinted the water blue so that you could see the shape on camera:

Next, I added some green, blue and purple Peerless watercolor paint to my rectangle:

I like Peerless a lot because the colors are vibrant and blend well. My tips on watercolors:

Don't judge a watercolor until it is dry. Often times they look so different wet and dry that the ones I thought I would hate become my favorite.
Don't overwork your paint. You will want to keep fussing to make your colors blend "perfectly," but don't. The more you try to control watercolors, the worse it will look. Let it do it's own thing.
Paint will pool at the edges of your shape in this technique. Let the puddles dry that way. You will end up with really interesting looking edges.
Don't over-blend. This one goes with tip #2. Let the colors run into each other and do their own blending. If you blend too much, you will end up with one solid color instead of many.

Once my pieces were dry, all that was left was to add my die cuts. Easy!