Be fearless with color! Create 5 eye-popping watercolor backgrounds.

I’m delighted to host the Altenew May 2020 Inspiration Challenge. This month’s color scheme is bold, bright, and perfect to celebrate sunshine, clear skies, and happy days.

Santorini, Greece has the most breathtaking skylines with its crisp white buildings and blue-domed rooftops. Do you know the ones? Now, I don’t have a personal photo of those striking rooftops to share, so think of this as my version.

To jumpstart your creativity, I combined this vibrant Inspiration Challenge with a new episode of Color Connection with Amber.

Build-a-Flower: Peruvian Lily

I encourage you to interpret the photo inspiration loosely and creatively incorporate the colors and shapes. The large expanse of blue and white called to me like a siren.

Watercolor Brush Markers and Liquid Watercolor Refills create a smooth vibrant color payoff. To create a waterfall background, hold a piece of Watercolor Paper Set at an angle, and drip clean clear water down the card. The water tracks give the pigment a place to run.

Next, squeeze drops of Turquoise Watercolor Brush Marker or Liquid Watercolor Refill onto the wet paper. Tap to get the drops to slide down the card. Splatter a few drops and set aside to dry.

Let’s look at this gorgeous bloom. Build-a-Flower: Peruvian Lily is a fan favorite for good reason. It’s one of the most realistic floral layer stamps I’ve seen. While 10 layers may seem daunting Altewew made this stamp easy to layer!

The stamping process is in video and I’ll list the individual colors here. The inks below are from the Summer Afternoon, Warm & Cozy, Pocketful of Sunshine, and Tropical Forest Crisp Dye Ink families. I stamped the sentiment with Obsidian Pigment Ink and popped up the lily on orange fun foam for extra color.

Build-a-Flower: Peruvian Lily
Layer 1 | Warm Sunshine
Layer 2 | Orange Cream
Layer 3 | Autumn Blaze
Layer 4 | Citrus Burst
Layer 5 | Maple Yellow
Layer 6 | Honey Drizzle
Layer 7 | Caramel Toffee
Layer 8, 9, 10 | Obsidian Pigment Ink

Leaves
Layer 1 | Bamboo
Layer 2 | Olive
Layer 3 | Moss

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Floral Art Stamp Set

Now let’s shake things up and create a blue flower with an orange watercolor background. The modern pop art style of the Floral Art Stamp Set is perfect for bright blue blooms. If you’re looking for a stamp set with minimal layers, this one is for you! Although these flowers only have 2-3 layers they pack a punch!

First, I stamped the largest flower from Floral Art Stamp Set with Obsidian Pigment Ink, Tide Blue Crisp Dye Ink, and Fresh Lemon Crisp Dye Ink. Look how the flower center overlaps the blue and creates a touch of green. Love it!

Now, I know what you’re thinking, why are there extra background panels in the first picture of this post? Guys, I could not decide on a watercolor background so I just kept making them. Ultimately, I landed on the simplest background of them all. LOL! Learn the process for all the backgrounds in the video.

For this card, I painted a 1-inch stripe with Warm Sunshine from the Spring Garden Watercolor Brush Marker Set. Wait for the paint to completely dry before stamping the sentiment. Mine is a bit blurry because it was still damp. Lastly, I hand-drew a line under the orange stripe and popped up the flower on white foam.

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I hope you are as inspired as I was by the photo and color scheme and I can’t wait to see what you make!

Join the Inspiration Challenge

We’d love to see what you’re creating. Play along with the challenge and you could win one of four $30 gift cards to shop Altenew.

Visit the Altenew May 2020 Inspiration Challenge for all the details and to link your project post. The challenge ends on May 31st, 2020, at 11:55 PM EDT.

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