Hello, crafty friends! With all the cold, clouds, and rain we've had lately, I thought I'd make something colorful and cheery today. I came up with this clean and simple watercolor background card. Follow along for the easy directions.

I started with an A2 sized piece of Distress Watercolor Cardstock. It's one of my favorites for watercolor anfd mixed-media because it's bright white and takes a lot of water.

I cut the paper down to 3 1/4 x 4 1/2" with a die from my stash. It leaves a cross stitch pattern for added interest. When cutting through thick cardstock like this, I need a metal shim to get good results.

I made brushstrokes with a 1" flat, watercolor brush. I chose light blue, plum, pink, and green for my card. I just took a dy ink pad, smooshed it onto my glass mat, watered it down, and swiped the brush across the cardstock. Then I splattered the panel with a dark grey ink.

After watercoloring, I dried the wet paper with a heat tool. Once dry, I stamped the coneflower from Blank Page Muse's The Heart Of Nature Stamp Set in dark grey ink. I imagine the blue is the sky, the plum and pink are the flower, and the green is the grass.

I popped up the finished panel onto an A2 top-folding card base with foam tape. If you noticed warping of the paper in the previous photo, it is gone now. That's thanks in part to the foam tape. I thought about adding a sentiment or gems, but I like it the way it is. When I give it to someone, I may add a sentiment.