Creating and Blending with Watercolor Powders: How to Use Color Bursts to Make Bright Thank You Cards

Color! All colors are fun to play with, so when I was gifted a set of watercolor powders, I was so excited! …and a little intimidated. I needed to play to learn how to use color bursts.

Let’s be honest: watercoloring is a lot of fun and creates magnificent results. Here are some of my previous watercolor cards you might like.  But using these concentrated watercolor pigments in a powder form was something new to me.

So I sat down to play. I cleared my workspace and brought out my watercolor paper. A thank you card was my hopeful end-goal.

See below for how to use color bursts. Here’s what I learned and was able to do.

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Supplies for these cards:

I also used the Thank You die from a Spellbinders set from a versatile wedding collection.

These Ken Oliver Caribbean Brights Color Burst Powder really go a long way…I don’t know if I’ll ever use the entire bottle!

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Steps for this Three-Toned Thank You Card:

1. Cut your watercolor paper to fit your card front.
   

   Tip: If you want to keep your watercolor paper from curling up when wet (and you want a fantastic white border), use washi tape to tape your paper to a flat non-porous surface.

   

   Tape down your watercolor paper to keep it from curling up (and leave a thin white border).

2. Using washi tape (or thin painters tape), separate one half of the paper from the other.
3. Sprinkle a SMALL amount of watercolor powder onto your paper. This stuff goes a LONG way.
4. Spritz water on the powder to activate it and watch the colors burst. Spray more if you want the colors to blend more.
5. Use a paintbrush or your heat tool to move the water around.
6. When your background is dry, remove your washi tape and adhere it to your card base.
7. Cut your vellum paper into a 3″ x 3″ square and adhere to the middle of your card using glue dots.
8. Die cut your sentiment from Navy and use your liquid glue to adhere it to the center of your vellum.
9. Stamp the additional sentiment in Navy and add two white brads.

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It was difficult to choose, but I belive I’ll be sending this bright card to my friend to thank her for the watercolor powders! Maybe I’m biased, but rainbow always wins!

I can’t wait to create more using my Color Burst Powders! There are many other ways to use these, and this “sprinkle and spritz” is just a single method. I love intense colors, and these definitely are intense and fun to play with!

The challenges I’m playing along with this card today are:

• CAS colours and Sketches – #288 Night of Navy, Gorgeous Grape, Crushed Curry
• Die Cutting Divas – #385 Sketch

If you enjoyed this post and found it helpful, I’d love to hear from you below and to see you share it! I’ll be posting more powder techniques within a few weeks! Happy crafting!