Sweet Elephants for a Sweet Baby Girl

I've been working on a project for the last week or so a little bit at a time for a friend who also happens to be my new hairdresser.  My other one moved to a salon in Tulsa and I didn't want to drive that far, so I've started going to a new one that I knew slightly before because she works at the salon where I get my nails done.  Bekah was scheduled to have her labor induced on August 9th due to pregnancy complications and bring a sweet baby girl into the world.  That happens to also be my oldest grandson's birthday only he turned 25 this year. Norah Michelle was born around 8:00 in the evening bringing much joy to her Momma, Daddy and three siblings.  She's still in the NICU and could use some prayers if you feel like doing that!

I knew that I wanted to make a personalized card for Bekah that she could put into a frame for the baby's room if she wanted.  Actually, I have been dying to make a card for the birth of a baby since I first saw Dawn Woleslagle watercolor these baby elephants from the WPLUS9 "Unforgettable" Stamp and Die sets more than a year ago.  I was excited to get to do that, finally!

Dawn was the first person I ever saw on YouTube using Distress Markers and Distress Inks to watercolor images with and is what made me want to try it. I did try the "Vintage" Collection of 12 markers at Hobby Lobby using a 40% off coupon to purchase. I figured that way I could try it to see if I could come anywhere close to what Dawn did.  She made it look so easy and achieveable. That started my love affair with creating watercolor looks in my cards. Happily, the success of that first set of "Vintage" Distress Markers led to getting other colors a few at a time.  I think there are about 62 colors in the Distress line of colors.  I've only purchased the ones that I am sure I will use such as pinks, corals and purples. Distress Markers continue to be my most used medium for watercolor although I have a few other choices.  I find them to be the most predictable in terms of how they react with water on the watercolor papers I use. I never use cardstock for watercolor.

So I started this project with a piece of 5.5 x 8.5 Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper and using a stencil brush, gave the entire panel the once over with some Lovely Lady Ink. I love the Arches Hot Pressed because it is so smooth.  Lots of people like the texture in watercolor paper but I am not one of them so my choice is always the smoother Hot Pressed Paper. The benefit of using the Stencil Brush to apply color is that you can get the color so much softer than with an Ink Blending Tool and softer still when you mist the panel with a bit of water.  Since it's for a baby girl, I want just the softest, most delicate pink for her.  Next I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed 4 little elephants from the Unforgettable Stamp Set (2 different styles) on Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper.  I watercolored them by scribbling some ink from my Pumice Stone Distress Marker onto an acrylic block and picking that up with my waterbrush. Watercolor is all about layers so each little elephant has about 4 layers of watercolor.  The Small (fine) Kuretake Fude Water Brushes are my favorites to use for watercoloring.  I have a couple of the medium sized ones but I have never actually used them. I also have regular watercolor brushes in the Silver Black Velvet brand in sizes 2, 4, & 8 but I really like the portability of having the water in the handle of the brush and not having to put a separate container of water on my desk.  It's important to understand here that I am a bit of a klutz! "Contained" water is a better option for me, personally. I also used a tiny amount of Worn Lipstick Distress Marker for the cheeks and inside of the ears on the elephants.  These elephants are just so cute. Additionally, the balloons are also from the "Unforgettable" Stamp Set and are colored in Worn Lipstick.

If you read my blog very often, you know that the current trend of cute little critters that seems to be everywhere isn't my favorite but Elephants and Giraffes are excepted.  I am also totally taken with Kay Miller's cute Halloween Set that has been previewed at Papertrey Ink this week and is coming out on the 15th. But that is the exception rather than the rule.  I just don't have occasion to send many cards with critters on them.  Now if they came out with a stamp for Yorkies, that would change the whole dynamic. *Ü*

For the background panel, I think that pink and gold is so ultra feminine and elegant and I wanted to mimic some "wallpaper" from a previous Papertrey Ink Challenge here.  So I chose to do a Harlequin Background which is a favorite look of mine.  Again, like I did on my previous day's card, I used a T-Ruler with a Gold Stardust Pen to draw on the geometric pattern. For Harlequin diamonds, taller is better so I measured in from the bottom left corner over 1.5 inches and then made the first diagonal line from the upper left corner to the first mark and used the width of my t-ruler to keep the lines the same distance apart all the way across. Then I went from the upper right corner to the bottom, 1.5 inches to the left from the bottom right side and made that line all the way down.  This gave me all of the lines I needed all the way down.  By using my T-Ruler as my guide for the width between the stripes, this kept everything nice and neat all the way across.

I used Encore Gold Pigment Ink (similar to Delicata Gold Glitz found here) to stamp baby's first name on the front of this card and then heat embossed it using Ranger Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder.  The first time I tried stamping this using Versamark, but I couldn't tell where I had stamped to connect the letters so I tried a few different way combining dye inks with Versamark before I remembered that I had this pigment ink. It didn't need to show except to line up the letters but because it is pigment ink, it is slow enough drying to add embossing powder.  I used Concord & 9th's Sophisticated Script Upper and Lower Stamp Sets. The little sentiment strip is embossed in Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder and came from the Altenew Sentiments & Quotes Stamp Set.

I'm going to try to enter this card in the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge this week with their theme of embossing.  You can do dry embossing, heat embossing, embossing paste or any kind you want.  My favorite technique is heat embossing so that is what I chose for this challenge. My favorite all around embossing powder is Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold.

Thank you so much for stopping by, taking time to leave a comment or an encouraging word.  It means the world to me when you do!