These backgrounds are very quick and easy to make, I love them because they are so vibrant and rich, their colours are so alive! Why be subtle when you can be in yer face!

I used neocolor watercolour crayons to make these backgrounds but if you dont have these you can always adapt using brush marker pens, watercolour pencils, watercolour paints, inks, reinkers or even your inkpad – improvise and see what alternatives you can come up with.

What You Need:

• Watercolour Crayons -or- alternatives
• Cardstock (not glossy)
• Jar Of Water
• Large Brush
• Heat Gun

How To Make The Backgrounds:

To make it easier Ive broken these backgrounds down into 4 easy to follow steps which you can see below, remember to work on newspaper as this can be messy:

Step 1: Take 3 different colour crayons, I chose yellow, magenta and red. You dont have to pick the same colours as me, choose your favourite colours – the brighter the better. Pastel shades dont really work for this background.

With your 3 different colour crayons; scribble a border around the card stock as seen in the photo labelled Step 1.

Step 2: Dip your paintbrush into the water and move the colour around the page as seen in the next photo step.

Step 3: While the background is still wet with the water from the previous step quickly scribble randomly over the card using the same colour crayons. See step 3 image.

For this step I added a bold section of yellow to the middle of the card, and then used the magenta crayon to scribble over the left and bottom and then used the orange red crayon to add scribbly lines and blocks of colour.

Step 4: Dip your brush in the water again and use it to gently blend the colours youve just added – dont use too much water as you will make your lines and squiggles dissapear and you want to keep them for added interest.

To prevent the water from diluting the colours too much, grab your heat gun at this point and blast the background till its dry.

Thats it! Arent they easy backgrounds? And boy are they bright!! Have a go at making some yourself, try different colour combos and experiment, then when your done give me a shout!

Heres some more backgrounds I did, to add interest I took some inks I had and dropped colours directly on the backgrounds while the water was still wet (click on the images to see larger pictures):