Watercolor Flowers Made Easy: Painting with Ink Pads

I love working color onto surfaces in interesting ways. So playing with watercolor in unconventional ways was fun. I made a couple cards using watercolors in loose and surprising ways. These techniques require you leave your perfectionism at the door. I will go over one of those methods here.

Supplies

• Altenew's Nostalgic Florals stamp and die  set
• Altenew's Garden Gala stamps. At the time of this writing, the Garden Gala set is only sold to subscribers of Craft Your Life membership plan. Subscribers got early access to this March 2026 set. It will not be available to non-subscribers until next month.
• Altenew's metallic watercolor set
• Altenew's solar white card stock
• Altenew's fresh dye inks in azurite, ultraviolet, volcano lake and fresh lemon
• Altenew's crisp ink in parrot
• Altenew's permanent black pigment ink
• Watercolor paper, preferably hot press
• Watercolor brushes - I used a number 9 round tip for depositing color and a larger round tip brush for brushing water onto surface before painting.

• Embossing ink and powder
• Cornstarch 
• Heat tool
• Water spritzer
• Sequins
• Optional: Stampwheel 2.0

1. Cut and score an A2 card out of your white card stock and set aside.
2. Brush a fine layer of cornstarch over a piece of watercolor paper. This will help your embossing powder stick to only the inked image.
3. Apply your stamp onto this prepared watercolor paper, using permanent black pigment ink.  Then stamp over the same image with embossing ink. I like to use a base coat of black ink to create a crisp outline in case my black embossing powder does not adhere perfectly. 
4. 
   Sprinkle your embossing powder over your inked image and tap off excess. If you have stray embossing powder, use a clean, dry paintbrush to brush the powder away. 
5. Use your heat tool to emboss the image.
6. The embossed lines serve as a waterproof ridge that keeps the water inside the enclosed area. Use your brush to lay a film of clean water over the image you are going to paint. Change your water often so as not to contaminate your color.
7. Select the colors you want to use from your available water-based ink pads. Uncap your ink pads and lay them face down onto a water resistant surface. You can use a craft mat, a palette or a glass mat as shown here. And rub the ink onto the surface. Deposit about three good smooshes of ink. (Smooshes is my very technical art term.)
8. 
   
   Spritz the ink with water until it beads up and you have a puddle of color. Be careful to leave the paint highly pigmented. Do not lighten the color with more water until you want a soft glaze of color. 
9. Moisten the tip of your brush and then use it to pick up color.
10. Dab color onto the already wet surface in an area you want to see paint flow. (I.E. the inner petals, close to the center.) The paint will flow outward from the initial deposit of color. 
11. Allow each layer of color to dry before applying more watercolor. You can use your heating tool, but be careful to not burn the paper by holding it too long over one area.
12. After you are satisfied with the initial painting, use metallic watercolor to accent select areas. It gives a lovely sheen and catches light beautifully.
    
    
    
13. Once dry, use the coordinating die to cut your flower out. Also, with the colored card stock, cut out the 4"X5.25" piece you will glue to front of the A2 card.   
    
    
    
14.  Glue the colored card stock onto the surface of your card. Leave a small, uniform white border showing. 
15. Stamp a piece of white card stock with the sentiment and use the coordinating die to cut it out. 
16. Assemble the front of your card. Your vibrant blossom is the star, but your sentiment can balance the composition. 
17. Give your card an extra touch by glueing a few sequins to your 
    
    
    
    
    
    Here is another card in which I used same watercolor technique.

What I love about this type of watercolor painting is that the brush work is loose and surprises are welcome. As card makers, we measure with care, cut exact, imprint precisely... we are meticulous. So these dabs of color that disperse in wonderful patterns are so fun. Happy accidents. 

 

Junk journaling and scrapbooking

Are you interested in junk journaling? What is the difference between junk journaling and scrapbooking? Click here to watch my video discussing this very question. I also go through some of my journal pages.

Using inkpads for watercolor: a sweet nostalgic floral card

 

A favorite past time for adults to relax with is coloring. In this tutorial, I will show you how to use your stamping ink pad to paint watercolor on your cards. And it is just like coloring in that you can easily brush on washes of color with three simple tools - a paintbrush, a paper towel and water. If you would like to see the accompanying video on how to achieve this look, click here. 

Supplies

• Altenew's Nostalgic Florals stamp  and die set
• White and light orange card stock
• Altenew's Satin Gold Sequins
• Altenew's Summer Afternoon fresh dye ink mini set
• Altenew's Coffee Break fresh dye ink mini set
• Altenew's Fresh Dye Ink in Grass Field 
  
  
  
• Altenew's Crisp Inks in Parrot
• Altenew's gluetape
• Liquid glue
• Altenew's watercolor brush
• Paper towels
• Water spritzer

1. Stamp a 4"X5.25" card stock rectangle with your flower image and sentiment.
2. Cut a 4.25"X5.5" yellow card stockout rectangle.
3. Glue the yellow card stock to the front of your A2 size folded white blank card.
4. On a slick paint proof surface (like most craft mats or palette), smudge the ink face of your stamping ink onto your "palette" to deposit ink. 
5. Moisten your brush tip and the deposited ink with your water spritzer.
6. Use your brush to mop up the ink and start painting. Play around with different quantities of paint on your brush tip and pressure to get different results. Also, the more you spray water onto your ink, the more subtle the shade.
7. Use the corresponding die for your main image and cut that out of card stock. You will be using this cut out as a mask, so you will want to save it with your stamp and die set. If you need to know what a card maker's "mask" is, check out my previous blog post here. 
8. Place your mask over your main image. Since you will not be blending ink over the mask's edges, you can simply lay the mask over your image. 
9. Wet the brush bristles and pick up a healthy amount of the water spritzed ink from your palette.
10. Hold your brush horizontally over your image and tap the barrel of your brush so that ink drops fall onto the card front.

Dad y Tio Hugo, large watercolor, early 2000's

 

California poppies, mixed media on paper

 

Bimini ( my cat) as Bastet (ancient Egyptian cat goddess)

 I have been having fun with whimsical animal portraits lately; mainly cats. My Bombay cat, Bimini, fancies herself Bastet. Bastet was the ancient Egyptian feline Goddess. 

Both compositions show Bimini in a Sphinx-like pose. And she wanted to be surrounded or embody Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Image on the left is at work on paper (9”X12”) while the image on the right is a painting on 12”X12” canvas. I do not think I am done yet with Bimi's portraits; no doubt you will see some more of them if I do.