Watercoloring (faux painting)

My mom asked me to prepare some Birthday and Thank you cards for her last week so I have the perfect reason to craft and practice more watercoloring techniques. 

I'm trying to do some faux hand painting:

Does it look like it was painted?  In real life it doesn't look like it was stamped but in fact in was!  I used distress inks to blend the colors and created shading. 

When it comes to making a card like this, I almost always want to start with the sentiment.  I hate it if the sentiment is not well stamped the whole card would be ruined, then I have to start all over from the "painting" of the rose.  How can I let the portion that takes the least time to ruin the project?  This time, however, I forgot to start with the sentiment but it wasn't messed up so I could put it to use.  To fill in the empty space I gave a little splash of the remaining distress ink on the card.  I like that the splatter fills in the space and makes it softer and gentler because the white space was too cold.  I don't recall doing it before and it's certainly fun as the results are so unpredictable.  This will become one of my favorite things to do on cards! 

I'm linking my card to the following:
Less is More - Flowers
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' - CAS
The Paper Players - Clean and Simple Floral

Thanks for stopping by!