LSG Squirts Gradient Backgrounds and Flowers with Heidi

Step by step tutorial about Squirts on watercolor paper

Hi everyone, Heidi here, today I’m showing you some ideas about how you can use the wonderful Lindy’s Stamp Gang Squirts.
But what are Squirts to begin with? Lindy’s Squirts are painting inks of a thicker consistency than the LSG Sprays and the colors are super vibrant and opaque. Because they are a thicker consistency they come in a screw-top bottle and not in a spray bottle. After shaking the liquid, so that the shimmer particles can mix, hold a tissue over the nozzle, twist the nozzle and your Squirt is ready to go. When closing the bottle hold a tissue over the nozzle again because there can be some residue left in the top.

Now that you know the product we are using, let me show you the techniques I used to make these beautiful star cards.

Step 1 – Gradient backgrounds with Warm-toned Squirts

I love creating gradient backgrounds using LSG Squirts. For this, I used thick watercolor paper and for today’s project, I picked three warm and three cool colors that go well together. Each panel will look different and unique and results will vary depending on how much water you add to the panel.

I used each color one time on each panel, do you see what I mean with super vibrant! I totally love how these background panels turned out!

To start, die cut the panels to a size two sizes smaller than your card base, using watercolor paper. I love to use a textured paper for this technique, use whatever you have and like! For my warm color combo I choose LSG Squirts in Poutine Gold, Maple Syrup Bronze, and Oh Canada Crimson. Work on a craft sheet or a glass mat that you can easily clean.

Start with the lightest color which is Poutine Gold, hold the panel towards you in a slanted angle. Add the liquid to the corner area and spray with water, which makes the color run. The color will go where the paper is wet if you don’t want to have the color across the whole panel then don’t wet the entire panel. Let the liquid run from one side to the other and back and dry the panel with your heat tool while you do this, dry the area next to the white part first and keep tilting the panel back and fort. You do this until the entire panel is dry again.

I used the color that is between the yellow and the red to merge the two together lastly, so now I first use the red one which is Oh Canada Crimson. Apply and dry this color in the same way you did with the yellow one.

Next, merge the two previous colors together using the middle color with is Maple Syrup Bronze.

These applications are only one go with each color, these Squirts are fabulously vibrant! But if you like to use more layers then you, of course, can do that too!

Step 2 – Gradient backgrounds with Cool-toned Squirts

For the cool color combination I proceeded in the same way. This time I used Emerald Eh?! for the lightest color, Banff Blue for the bottom color and Loonie Toonie Teal to merge the two colors together.

In this way, I created four panels: two square ones (one in cool tones and one in warm tones) and two rectangle panels (one in cool tones and one in warm tones). As you can see each panel looks a little different.

Step 3 – Stamped Images Colored with Squirts

Next, I’m working on the focal points for each card: for the warm-toned cards I used stamped images that I’m going to color using the Squirts as watercolor paints. I used the butterfly image from the Crafter’s Companion Newspaper Collage stamp set and one of the flower images from the Altenew Needlework Motif stamp set. I stamped the images onto Strathmore Bristol Smooth Surface paper using Versafine Onyx Black ink and I clear heat embossed afterward using Lindy’s Stamp Gang Clearly Clear embossing powder. This way my lines stay crisp and black no matter how much water I add.

Add the colors you want to use on your project onto a palette and fill a different container with clean water. Now you can pick up the color with a small brush and paint in the images, fading the color out by using more water. Add layers until you are happy with how the image looks.

I used four of the colors that I used on the background panels: the yellow, orange, red and bright green. As you can see you only need a drop of each color.

When the coloring is done you can add some highlights using a white Gelly Roll pen.

Step 5:

For the cool-toned cards I choose to use some die cuts as my focal points. I added the same color gradient to some pieces of leftover watercolor paper and then die cut the star shapes (use any star shape die you have) and the happy word (Winnie & Walter In a Word Happy Cutaway) from this.

Step 6:

For my sentiments, I used one from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Small Talk stickers set and the others are a combination of stamps from the Winnie & Walter The Big, The Bold & Party stamp set. I first used an anti-static powder tool on black card stock, then stamped the sentiment using VersaMark ink and heat embossed using Lindy’s Stamp Gang Purely White embossing powder.

Next I fussy cut the sentiments or die cut a banner shape around them using the My Favorite Things Slanted Sentiment Strips die set and the Lawn Fawn Everyday Sentiment Banners die set.

For all four cards, I used a black background panel, slightly larger than the watercolor panels.

Step 7:

Now I’m ready to put my cards together: starting with the warm-toned ones I adhered the black panels to the watercolor panels using liquid glue (this is the moment to put them in a thick book if your watercolor panel is slightly warped).

For the rectangle panel, I adhered the sentiment and the butterfly together using liquid glue and then adhered this combination to the combined background panels using one-millimeter thick foam tape. Then I wrapped the banner to the back on the right-hand side and adhered there using regular tape. To finish the card I adhered this combination to my card base using one-millimetre thick foam tape.

For the square card, I adhered the banner to the flower image also using liquid glue, adhered this combination to the combined background panels using one-millimeter thick foam tape and then finished the card by adhered this combination to a card base.

Detail pictures:

Step 8:

For the cool-toned rectangle card, I adhered the star-shaped die cuts to the same shapes die cut from black card stock, using liquid glue. This combination I adhered to the combined background panels also using liquid glue and then adhered the sentiment on top of the bottom star after matting it on black card stock.

For the square card I also added a black layer to the happy die-cut, added liquid glue to all the sentiments and adhered them to the combined squire panels using liquid glue. To the star die cut on this card I added another layer of white card stock, adhered the star shapes together using liquid glue and adhered this combination to the card panel using liquid glue. And to finish this card I adhered this combination to a card base also using one-millimeter thick foam tape.