A Unexpected Surprise

It's already the middle of September!!  Wow - this year is just flying by in so many ways.  In my husband's family, we gather the whole family at Christmas every year.   My hubby is one of 6 children so by the time we all get together, there's already a dozen of us.  Then add in our kids and our grandkids--well, you get the idea.  It's nice that we still have this tradition.

Since I started making cards this year, I really want to make all of my Christmas Cards by hand. That requires planning so don't get too excited when you start seeing Christmas cards here.  I'm going to be trying several things so I can decide which one(s) I want to use.  It just so happens that the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week is to use a favorite technique.  I combined a couple that I really like; Watercolor and Emboss-Resist.  I first saw Jennifer McGuire use this technique and I love her style.  It is similar to my style.  

For this card I started with a piece of watercolor 3.75 x 5 inch card stock in a cold pressed 140# weight.  The first thing I did was to stamp my image in Versamark and heat embossed it with Simon Says Stamp Fine White Embossing Powder.  For the background I wanted to use my Pine Needles Distress Marker to make the color wash, so I put some color on an acrylic block, just touched the very tip of my Waterbrush into my Perfect Pearls Pigment Powder and gave it all a mist of water and mixed it up.  Next, I used my mister bottle to lightly spray my watercolor paper with water all over so that the color would soften a bit when I applied it.

Using a Water Brush, I picked some of the color off of the acrylic block and touched it to my paper.  Since my paper was damp, it makes a color wash rather than a solid color.  I love watercolor, but I've had to practice A LOT to let go of the control and let the color and water do their thing.  Not an easy thing for a control freak to accomplish! Ha ha! I still need more practice, but I did pretty okay for this card.  The Perfect Pearls Pigment Powder combines with the water and color to give a shimmery effect in the color.  It's really beautiful!  The Noel Stamp is one I have had for a number of years and I was determined to try to use it this year.  While I was letting the watercolor piece dry, I cut a card base of 5.5 x 8.5 inches scored and top folded at 4.25 inches in Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Mint Card Stock.  This card stock is a 100# weight and makes beautiful, crisp cards.  It seemed the best color match for the Pine Needles Distress Ink and I love that it's a non-traditional color for Christmas.  A little something unexpected in the recipient's mailbox.  

Next I cut the "Christmas Blessings" sentiment using a Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Die in Gold Foiled Paper.   I am pretty sure I would also like this card done in Silver and Pearly White and a combination of other shades of blue from light to dark.  I am particularly anxious to try some lovely, cool and wintry shades of blue like Audrey Blue and Seaglass, also from Simon Says Stamp. Simon has really nice 100# card stock in a great selection of colors and many colors also have matching Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Dye Inks.   It's always nice to have coordinating products in a wide variety of colors.  In fact, it's one of my favorite things about Simon Says Stamp.

  

For the final touch I cut several stars from Glittered Gold Card Stock using the Simon Says Stamp Holiday Shapes Hearts & Stars die.  That die is one that I use over and over again and I have the Simon Says Stamp Large Holiday Shapes - Hearts & Stars on my wishlist. 

Before I finished today's post, I got out my Mermaid Lagoon Distress Marker to try a blue variation that I was thinking of earlier.  I used yet another technique that I am enjoying which is paint (ink in this case) spatters using a small #2 script brush to pick up the color and then tap it over the water colored piece so it splatters on to the background in unique patterns.  There is no way to ever make two cards the same way, so each will always be unique.  

I used snowflakes and sequins for this card but I think I would like glittery stars equally well.

While I like the Blue with the Silver and White embellishments, I think I do prefer the gold better at this point so I'll be trying this in other colors over the next several days.

I confess - it's late when I am posting this, so if you see something wrong or missing, please leave a comment so I can fix it.

Have a blessed week, everyone!!