Watercolour Birthday Cards using Liquid Masking

Now that Christmas is officially done, it won't be long until we are getting prepared for the next big holiday -- VALENTINE'S DAY.

But not today.

Today I have two birthday cards for you. I created these cards using liquid masking; a "new to me" product that I had seen several other card making bloggers use and I just had to try. Typically I will stamp the image onto masking paper to protect the space, but with watercolour that doesn't work as well.

For these cards, I stamped out my greetings, then applied the liquid mask. After the masking dried, I used watercolours to make a fun background. It's important to let the background dry before removing the mask so you don't run the risk of the colour bleeding into the white space, or ruining the background in the process of rubbing away the mask.

Once the masking was completely removed I wet the area inside the letters with clean water and dotted in some colour at the top so that the water would pull it down to the rest of the area. 

Green background with blue in the text

Sometimes a card will turn out perfectly and other times not so much. I had considered leaving the second card out, but then I thought that it might be beneficial for others that could learn from my mistake. 

In the card below, you can see what happens when you don't allow the liquid masking to dry completely before applying the colour. In the "Y", the purple seeped through the masking which muddied up the paper when the yellow-green was applied. 

Purple background with yellow-green inside the text. I also used the water drop technique to create a more blotchy or distressed look for the background.

Liquid masking is a fabulous product and I'm sure I'll be using it more in the future. One piece of advice if you are considering purchasing this product: don't get the pure white stuff. Get a brand that is either off-white or pigmented (I've seen blue it in blue), It is incredibly frustrating to realize halfway through that I did't remove all the masking from the card face. Trust me. THAT card definitely didn't make it up here.