As the title of this post suggests, I tried watercoloring on regular, non-watercolor paper to create this Birthday Floral card. I can’t exactly remember the last time I did that (I mean watercolor on white non-watercolor paper, as I sometimes like to watercolor on kraft non-watercolor paper), perhaps many years ago when I was just trying watercolors out for the first time? Who knows.
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I’m always saying that using good quality watercolor paper for watercolor coloring is very important. And while yes, it is, one can still get away with using regular cardstock and have good results. I feel like sometimes it’s okay to cheat and use the other paper for a quick card. Wouldn’t you agree?
WATERCOLOR BIRTHDAY CARD DETAILS
I wouldn’t normally use non-specialty paper for a watercolor project, but the lack of hot-pressed paper in my stash (hot pressed means the surface of the watercolor paper is smooth), prompted me to use what I had.
And since I really wanted to use a floral cluster from the Beautiful Flowers 2 stamp set from Simon Says Stamp (it’s a very detailed image which would not have stamped well on cold pressed watercolor paper) I used my regular Neenah Solar White 110 lb cardstock.
The thickness, I feel, played a very important role here and is actually what allowed me to pretend I’m watercoloring like normal. After heat embossing the cluster in Gold embossing powder, I used my water brush and several favorite colors of Daniel Smith watercolor to color this piece: Sap Green, Quinacridone Rose and Opera pink and Quinacridone Gold.
Using the incorrect paper type prevented me from going back to my image and adding layers upon layers of color and prompted to do quick coloring instead. Still, I love the result.
To diversify the plain white background I created a mask for the cluster and having masked it stamped Sketchy Lines background in Simon’s Fog ink adding linen-like texture to the piece. I also added a birthday sentiment, this one comes from the Sketched Flowers stamp set and a sub sentiment stamped on a piece of hot pink cardstock, it’s from the Tiny Words Encouragement set.
Finally, I spritzed the panel with Hero Arts White Iridescent Shimmer Spray, my favorite product to use for messy backgrounds as well as some splatter of the pink watercolor. Having dried the panel I die cut it into a rectangle and using fun foam mounted on to an A2 kraft top folding card base. A selection of Girl’s Best Friends sequins was used to embellish the card.
I love how this card turned out and I think I will be more open in the future to using regular cardstock for watercolor, although let’s be honest here, there’s a reason there’s specialty watercolor paper in the world.
Have fun crafting!
SUPPLIES
I’m listing the products I used below. Click on the link to go directly to the product. Where available I use compensated affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!
 Simon Says Clear Stamps Sketched Flowers Shop at: SSS |
 Simon Says Clear Stamps Beautiful Flowers 2 Shop at: SSS |
 Simon Says Clear Stamps Tiny Words Encouragement Shop at: SSS |
 Simon Says Stamp Sketchy Lines Background Shop at: SSS |
 Simon Says Stamp Doll Pink Cardstock Shop at: SSS |
 Neenah Classic Crest 80 Lb Desert Storm Shop at: SSS |
 Neenah 110 Lb Solar White Cardstock Shop at: SSS |
 Simon Says Stamp Masking Paper Shop at: SSS |
 Simon Says Stamp Embossing Ink Pad Shop at: SSS |
 Simon Says Stamp Fog Dye Ink Pad Shop at: SSS |
 Simon Says Stamp Sequins Girl’s Best Friend Shop at: SSS |
 Tsukineko VersaFine Onyx Black Ink Shop at: SSS |
 Hero Arts Heat Embossing Gun Shop at: SSS |
 Hero Arts Gold Embossing Powder PW100 Shop at: SSS |
 Hero Arts White Iridescent Shimmer Spray Shop at: SSS |
 Daniel Smith Quinacridone Gold 5ml Shop at: SSS |
 Daniel Smith Quinacridone Rose 5ml Shop at: SSS |
 Daniel Smith Opera Pink Shop at: SSS |
 Daniel Smith Sap Green 5ml Shop at: SSS |
 Medium Water Brush Shop at: SSS |
 EK Success Powder Tool Applicator Shop at: SSS |
 Misti Stamping Tool Shop at: SSS |
 White Fun Foam 12 Pack 9 x 12 Shop at: SSS |
 Tonic Deluxe Adhesive Nuvo Glue Shop at: SSS |
 Crystal Ninja Crystal Katana Pick Up Tool Shop at: SSS |
SAVE ME/PIN ME TO PINTEREST
Like this card idea? Be sure to save it to one of your Pinterest boards for future reference!
This is so beautiful Yana, I am definitely going to try this out. As you mentioned, due to the detail of this stamp, I didn’t have the best results using EP on cold pressed w/c paper as I had to stamp twice with Versamark and I lost a lot of detail. However, I am determined to do better with this gorgeous stamp so I am grateful that you shared this.
Thank you, Teresa! Be sure to use thicker cardstock, 110lb, I think that’s the key to having good results on non watercolor paper. Have fun!
The soft color with the gold embossing is so pretty.
thank you so much, Debbie! I’m glad you enjoyed it. With the success of this card I now want to watercolor more and more.
So beautiful! 🙂
thank you!
Your card is gorgeous! Thanks for sharing your tips on water coloring…I didn’t know the difference between hot and cold pressed paper. 🙂
glad it was helpful, Terrie. And thank you, I’m happy you liked the card.
Btw, in addition of the hot pressed and cold pressed, there’s also “rough” – this one has the most texture of all and, in most cases, is not suitable for stamping, but does give fabulous results for watercolor paintings.
Really Beautiful!!!
thank you so much, Maureen!
AWESOME!!!
thank you, Susie!