Creating a Water Colour Background

Hi OTR friends. Fiona here with you today to share how I created a water colour background using this months non-traditional mood palette colours.

I just love this fresh combination of colours and the touch of gold sets it all off.

I started by spraying water onto my 12x12 white background. now this is not any ordinary white card stock. this is a special water colour paper. If you only have normal white card stock, be sure to put a layer of gesso onto it first or the watercolours will soak in too easily and won't blend.

Next step is to add the colours. I've chosen to use Tim's new range of Distress Sprays. They are water based and the colours are the same as his other products, so I'm familiar with them.

I went with "Dusty Concord" for the Purple, "Picked Raspberry" for the pink, "Salty Ocean" for the blue, "Peacock Feathers" for the green and for the gold I used "Tarnished Brass".

Once the paper was really wet with water, I flicked the colours onto the background one at a time, spreading them around with a brush, adding more colour or water if needed.

Make sure you dry in between each colour with either a heat gun or naturally, depending on how much of a hurry you're in, or you'll get a messy brown muck as the colours will all combine.

Here I'm adding some pink.

And here I added the blue and then the green. Remember to dry between each colour and add more water as you go to help the colours blend.

This is the dried end result.

Now it's time to add some layering. For this background I added some stamping with black ink and some blending with Distress Inks and a stencil.

Finally I added the gold by splattering some of the "Tarnished Brass" over the top.

This is how it turned out in the end. It's now ready for the papers, embellishments and photo to be added. I like to have backgrounds sitting around already done in my stash just in case I need one in a hurry. It's also a good way to practice your layering and if it doesn't work ...... well there's always GESSO!!!

I hope you all have an fun, creative and Merry Christmas and a Happy new year.

Untill next time xx

Fiona