Painting Watercolor Backgrounds with Nina-Marie

Hi Friends!  We're welcoming our April guest Nina-Marie Trapani back to the blog today.  This is her last post for the month and we're sad to see her go!  We've so enjoyed having her back visiting on the blog and we know you have too!

Happy Friday everyone! Today I am excited to share another video featuring Gansai Tambi watercolors and Neat & Tangled products! Last week, I shared a video featuring these same products in a no-line coloring technique. This week – since the Gansai Tambi paints are a newer watercolor palette for me – I wanted to explore them a bit further and see how they did in creating backgrounds.



Watercolor backgrounds are something I greatly enjoy creating. The abstract feel of the watercolors, combined with how they layer and blend simply appeal to me. They are relaxing to make and allow me to have some “playtime” without having to worry about staying inside of lines or trying not to let colors mix. Backgrounds for the most part allow you to be free.

The Gansai Tambi watercolors worked beautifully for creating vibrant, layered backgrounds. I used all blues for these backgrounds, but you could definitely work with other colors. When I was working on painting these, I was in the mood for using blue tones; they make me think of the ocean.

In some of the backgrounds, I did use a bit of white metallic, which is included in the 36 set of Gansai Tambi watercolors. If you don’t have the Gansai Tambi paints – or do not have the 36 set – and would like to incorporate a metallic like this into your artwork, I recommend the Gansai Tambi Starry Colors set. This set of metallic watercolors are the same consistency and feel of the metallics included in the Gansai Tambi 36 set and include a few extra golds too!

I ended up creating a total of five backgrounds – which I then turned into cards – with the help of the Neat & Tangled Succulent Journaling Card die. This die coordinates with the beautiful Succulent Journaling Card stamp set. I did not use the stamps from the set today however; just the die.



The die is recessed into a coordinating blue cardstock frame. For a sentiment, I stamped the word “hello” in blue ink and heat embossed it with clear powder. To embellish the card, I used a few Sparkling Clear mix and 3mm sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

These cards all look different and unique, which is the look I was going for. When I painted the backgrounds, I made sure to put the colors down differently on each watercolor paper panel. By varying up the paintings, I was able to make a set of cards that match, but each have their own character.



I hope today’s post has inspired you and gave you some ideas for working with watercolor backgrounds behind a die cut such as the Succulent Journaling Card, to create a pretty card set.

And a BIG, BIG thank you to my dear friends Danielle and Miriam from Neat & Tangled who allowed me to come guest with them this month; I had so much fun!