Hello crafty friends. I really hope that you’re having a great day. I’m back here to share with you a watercolour card.

I adore cactus stamps. Let’s just start with this piece of information. I think they give so many colour possibilities and they have really great shapes to them. Today’s card actually alters some cactus stamps to create a desert scene.

The stamps I used are Cactus Greetings, and Cactus Quotes, both from Paper Rose Studio, and they feature a range of cacti, all in different pots. I stamped the images and heat embossed them in white, then cut them out with the matching dies. I then carefully cut away the pots, leaving just the cacti behind to watercolour. You can see the original stamps in the photos above and below.

I did the colouring in layers, building up each cactus with different shades of green, blue and brown. Once they were coloured, I got to work on the background. I first wet the paper, which was taped to a board, and layered in a light wash of blue and green for the sky. I actually covered the whole card with this, and then let it dry. I then came in with browns and greys for the soil (although the greys seem to have been swamped by the browns in the photo!)

Once the background had dried a second time, I splashed the ground with grey and brown, and then the whole panel with white spatters. I then adhered the cacti using a mix of flat and foam tape. This card ended up quite busy, and I toyed with the idea of leaving some of the cacti off, but, having coloured them, it felt attached to them all, so they’re all here!

Finally, the sentiment matches well to such a prickly subject, and fitted nicely in the small space left in the corner of the card.

I hope you have enjoyed this card, and are inspired to think outside of the box when it comes to making the most of your stamping supplies. If you’d like more cardmaking inspiration, feel free to visit my Instagram feed here, where you’ll see a lot more cards than make it to my blog.

Until next time, may we all be growing, whether things are hard or not!

Blessings,

Donna