Recently, I discovered a card on Pinterest that combined watercolors and stamps and I was in love! Although I took a watercolor class in college, my skills in that area are sorely lacking, so adding watercolors to stamps is the perfect solution.

In addition to watercolors and stamps, I’m in love with challenge blogs, so for this card I’m linking up to two. The Paper Players have this lovely challenge:

And the talented Narelle at Freshly Made Sketches has this fantastic sketch for everybody this week:

Watercolor Tips:

For the diagonal stripes and the “for you” sentiment, I used gray watercolors. I had to blot the stripes after I stamped them and the I stamped off for the words. Apply the watercolors directly to the stamp. I have noticed that if you use too much water, it doesn’t work well. I had to experiment a little to figure it out.

For the rose, I did two layers of watercolors, first in a bright pink and then in an apricot shade. My watercolors are Schylling brand and intended for “young artists.” Ha!

After the watercolors were dry, I added the detail stamp to the blossom in Strawberry Slush. I should also mention that the rose was done on Stampin’ Up! watercolor paper and I fussy cut it out.

Here is a close up:

Stamp Sets:

Mother’s Love (137170)

Build A Bouquet (137166)

Stippled Blossom (126747)

Gorgeous Grunge (130517)

Be sure to check out all of the beautiful inspiration on both challenge blogs- wowza, as usual!

Happy stampin’ friends!

Michelle