• Home
  • About Me
  • Life
  • Reading
  • Gardening
  • Subscribe by Email
  • Referral Codes

Kimberussell.com

a blog by Kim Russell

September 1, 2025

August 2025 cards: Watercolor WOW!

Rabbit rabbit! Happy September1! Another month gone means another set of cards here on the blog.

When I was looking for inspiration for my July cards, I pinned a design featuring a stamped bouquet of flowers with splashes of color behind them. What excited me most was realizing that I actually own that stamp set! I have plenty of cardmaking supplies, but definitely not as much as some crafters out there, so seeing something I already had felt like a small victory I was fully on the watermelon train back in July, but I knew — knew — that I’d be circling back to that flower card.

a screenshot of my pinterest card inspiration board, featuring many watermelon themed cards and a watercolor flower one

Here’s the wild part: that inspiration card was hand drawn by Kristina Werner (Instagram reels link). Hand drawn! And hand lettered! I assume that my stamp set was created from her original design.

Humbled but still motivated, I continued onward. My first step was to perform some testing: Kristina put the watercolor down first and then drew on top of it. Would it make a difference if I stamped first and watercolored behind it? Also, is my black ink waterproof enough for this? The answers were: it doesn’t matter, and yes!

a test paper: on one side I have written "stamp, then watercolor" with two flowers stamped below it with watercolor on top of them. on the other side it says 'watercolor, then stamp' and the watercolor is behind the black ink of the pattern. There is scant difference.

When I painted over the stamped image, the color pulled away from the ink ever so slightly. The alternative, though, was painting first and trying to line up the stamp afterward. It wasn’t a risk I wanted to take. The tiny amount of white visible was a fair tradeoff for being able to confidently place the color. I also played with some paint splattering, which looked great with just two colors, but once I added more it became chaotic. I skipped it for this month, but I’ll revisit that technique later.

While I was inspired by the pinned card, I didn’t want to make an exact copy of it. Instead, I angled the bouquet from the lower left corner and stamp a single flower at the upper right. Simple, but it worked. I love it!

a yellow background. on it is a card front with clear stamps positioned diagonally.

Once I stamped the 14 card fronts, I painted them color by color.

cards in progress: seven cards with tamped flowers with colorful spots of pink, yellow, and orange behind them. Some of the flowers aren't painted yet.

Next came cropping. I used a rectangle die to trim the card fronts down. Could I have used my paper cutter? Sure, but since but I already ruined one painted panel, I and didn’t want to risk losing any more. Dies always create a perfect rectangle. Me and my paper cutter? Not so much.

For the greeting, I corrected July’s regret of skipping white-on-black embossing. This time, I heat-embossed “Hello friend” in white on black cardstock, then cut around the it. But when I placed the greeting on the card front it looked unmoored, like it was floating awkwardly between the flowers. To create more of a connection to the rest of the card, I tucked a strip of yellow cardstock underneath. The yellow is close enough to the yellow paint I used behind the flowers that it all tied together.

card in progress: stamped flowers with colorful spots of pink, yellow, and orange behind them, a yellow strip of paper about 1/4 down from the top  with a clear plastic t-square ruler helping to position it straight

Once everything was glued down, I had one of those rare (for me) crafting moments. I was happy.

the completed card: stamped flowers with colorful spots of pink, yellow, and orange behind them, a yellow strip of paper about 1/4 down from the top and a 'hello friend' embossed in white on black paper, cut into a blob shape and adhered on top of the yellow strip

I honestly think these are the best cards I’ve created. LOOK AT THEM!

stacks of the completed cards: stamped flowers with colorful spots of pink, yellow, and orange behind them, a yellow strip of paper about 1/4 down from the top and a 'hello friend' embossed in white on black paper, cut into a blob shape and adhered on top of the yellow strip

The design keeps the spirit of the original, but is different enough to feel like my own. These cards are beautiful an I am thrilled with how they turned out. Honestly, it’s all downhill from here. September’s cards are already underway and they feel like a hot mess in comparison. I’m too far in to turn back now.

Looking back at five years of car posts in this cardmaking category, I can see how much my design skills have grown. For a person who spends her nine-to-five in the (spread)sheets, I’m pretty proud of good ol’ Right Brain!

But as the saying goes, pride goes before fall. And September’s cards might be the tumble. Stay tuned!

  1. BOOOOO, hisss, blahhhh. ↩︎

Posted In: Cardmaking · Tagged: cardmaking, cards


Need some more email in your life? If you’re a regular reader but forget to check in, you can subscribe to a once-a-week email with links to the week’s posts! Click here to sign up!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Previous Post Friday 5: Me-time
Next Post Wordless Wednesday: Week 36

Hello!

About Me

I've been blogging for over twenty (2 decades! 2-0!) years and I'm apparently one of the few over-50 female bloggers who haven't sold out to THE MAN yet; hence this blog remains quirky, homespun, and unprofitable. No big. However, if you're from Disney, Doritos, or Dave Matthews Band, I'm open to talk about selling out.

I live in Southern New Jersey with my husband WM, and our dog Murphy. I'm an adult who likes Disney but not a Disney Adult. I used to work a fun (really!) office job in Philadelphia, but since March of 2020 I'm a work from home hermit. So if you're looking for a childless, slightly round, marginally boring GenX woman's blog to follow, you've come to the right place! :)

Archives

Goodreads

Goodreads: Book reviews, recommendations, and discussion

Pinterest

Visit my profile on Pinterest.

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Webring

Click to visit a random blog!
(webring operated by tinylytics)
the wombsday clock graphic with two teal haired women in white rockers. It has reached 12 months and there are teal and white stars all over the graphic.
Well, that happened.

“I am I because my little dog knows me.” – G. Stein

Copyright © 2025 Kimberussell.com · Theme by 17th Avenue

There are cookies on this site. Continuing to visit kimberussell.com means you're okay with the cookies. Okay?