As I live in a desert, I obviously fell wildly in love with the My Monthly Hero August 2022 card kit. The kit came with fabulous stencils and some die cuts to use alongside.

One of the things about desert dwelling is the stunning sunsets. I was playing around with making a background to use with my stencils and after layering several sky colors on a sheet of watercolor paper, I had that little light bulb go off.

I love the stencils, but I noticed that the dies would cut a desert stack and a nice cactus. So, I cut them from some Gina K Masking paper and mixed some watercolor to create the desert scene in this card.

Use the cut-out negative edge to create the shape of the landscape and the cactus. I was worried that the watercolor would seep through and leave a blob. I am happy to report they did not. While the lines aren’t “crisp” that’s okay because watercolor rarely is “perfect lines”. I was really WOWed by how this masking tape both maintained the integrity of the masking paper but also how it came off the watercolor paper without any tears.

Start by taping off a frame on your watercolor paper. I used Canson XL paper. Once it was taped down spray water on the paper and allowed it a few moments to soften the water. Using a reference photo I added the sky and land to a horizon.

Once I paint the sky and horizon line I was able to place the negative cut masking paper and adding the first layer of color to the mountains in the image. I added the mountains with the masking paper by placing it on the paper after I had put down my sky. (Which is more than half of the cut paper.)

Following that, I added the cactus in the same manner.

I then slowly layered the colors up by drying the layers between each application.

I brushed on some watered-down glue (2:1 ratio) and sprinkled on the bronze Pearl Ex for a nice textured border.

Once I had all this done, I added the white flowers using Dr. Martin’s Bleedproof White and did a little touch-up to the shadows.

I hope you are inspired to try this fun technique.

You can use the product links which helps me out a little as it is an Affiliate Link (full disclosure).

Let me know if you have any questions.