The Hands of Time

I have been in a Watercolor Class this week and I was so ready to make a card today when I finished with the lesson.  I didn't do much homework but class doesn't conclude until next Friday.

It should come as no surprise that when I sat down today to make a card, I chose pink (SU Rose Red) and coral (Simon Says Stamp Teeny Bikini) as my color choices.  I grabbed a piece of Canson Bristol Watercolor Card Stock and a couple of Mini Ink Blending Tools.  Lots of card makers just use white card stock to do this but I love the way the inks blend on the watercolor paper and I just can't get this good of an effect with card stock. This is about my favorite way to make a background panel.  I love the softness and the blend that I am able to achieve by using a bit of water to help the color along.  It doesn't take much effort and I don't have the patience to wait and see what happens by dabbing at it with multiple watercolors.

I inked up the background corner to corner with both in the middle and used a few mists of water to blend.  I use a solution of alcohol and water which speeds up this process.  Once it's dry from that, I stamped my Papertrey Ink Hands of Time clock image using Versamark and heat set it with Ranger Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder.  I forgot to use an embossing buddy or powder tool, but I took a dry brush to clean up the area where there was a bit extra. Thankfully, that only happened in one small place or I would have had to start over. *Ü*

I'd love to be able to tell you that the clock face has all those numbers on it, but it doesn't.  The stamp set does include each of the Roman Numerals so I carefully stamped them one by one.  I stamped 4 at a time, then put the Tinsel Embossing Powder on and heat set it, then moved on to the next 4.  I did mess one number up so I scraped it off with my palette knife, put more powder tool on it and re-stamped it. I can tell where it is, but I'm pretty sure no one getting a handmade card will notice.  They just enjoy the fact that you think enough of them to spend the time making a card.

The sentiment on this card is also two separate pieces so I laid the stamps face down on my card to see where they would fit, then picked them up with my acrylic block and stamped them in Versamark, again using Ranger Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder to heat set them. The hands of the clock are included with the stamps but I also got the Hands of Time Dies which are slightly larger, so I cut them with a scrap of Metallic Gold Foil Card Stock.

I cut my background panel with my favorite Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle in the largest size and started assembling everything.  In photography, there is the rule of thirds that you should pretty much always use and I've found the same to be true in card making.  So my clock time is set using the rule of thirds.  For whatever reason, this is the most visually pleasing to most people. I poked a hole at the center of the hands for a tiny gold brad then mounted the background panel onto a PTI Stamper's Select White A2 card base.

This certainly isn't the most difficult card I've ever made, but I love how it came out.  I also love that it is flat for mailing.  I tend to mostly make things that are easily mailable so that I can send more cards rather than spending a fortune on postage and not being able to send as many.  Everyone loves to get a personal note in the mail.  This is an irrevocable truth.

I'll be entering this card over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog this week for the "Anything Goes" Challenge.  I still have a few valentines to make so hopefully I'll be back here with one or two more before the weekend is over.
 
Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!