Foiled & Embossed Watercolor Pages

A few years ago ((back in 2015) when I first started making cards, I got a whole pad of pre-embossed and foiled watercolor sheets.  These came from Cosmo Cricket and I had gotten two of them; one 8 x 8 and one 12 x 12.  I picked mine up at Simon Says Stamp and each pad has several pages that have gold foil on them as well.  Recently, I found another of the 12 x 12 size in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby for $2.00 so I snagged it, of course.

I haven't used them too often but recently, I decided that the thing I liked them best for was ink blending, rather than water coloring.  Watercolor Paper takes ink incredibly well, especially if you give it a lot of shimmer mist which I am likely to do.  Pretty much any dye based ink will work, it's just a matter of blending.

The particular card I am sharing today was blended using Simon Says Stamp Hollyhock Ink for ink blending on my watercolor paper.  This sheet was from the 8 x 8 pad and so I cut a stitched rectangle from the sheet, framing up the heart in the center of the panel.  I also do the large 12 x 12 sheets by cutting them into four 6 x 6 squares and using them for background panels.  It's a fast easy and way to add a great design and a punch of color to your background.

I had this card finished and was photographing it for an upcoming event when I realized that I was missing something.  This card was for a guest design post featuring Winnie & Walter Products and while I did use one of their products, I realized that the one I used isn't carried in the store I am doing the guest design for so I had to change gears and make a different one.  But I wanted to share this one because it is so utterly feminine!  If you've visited me before, chances are you know that I love Pink and Gold together.

I was very surprised recently when my daughter said that she wanted to do her office in Pink, Grey and Gold.  She has a home office so she can do whatever colors she wants but they only moved into this house last summer and they still have a few boxes sitting in there and no furniture yet. She is definitely more of a white gold kind of girl but she knew I would love it since pink is my favorite color.  Even though I know she is not planning to do such a dark shade of Pink, I'm sending this card to her.  But first, a few details for you!

The gold foil on these watercolor sheets is a bright yellow-gold rather than the more antique gold color that I typically use which meant I had to break out my Gold Mirror Cardstock.  I don't use this very often, but sometimes, it just happens to be the thing that matches.  My Gold Mirror Cardstock came from Simon Says Stamp and is from Tonic Studios.

Once I had the butterfly and the sentiments die cut from the Gold Mirror Cardstock, I thought I really needed a mat for my front panel from the same gold to tie it all together.  I die cut the watercolor panel with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle and the Gold Mat from My Favorite Things Blueprint 15 which I believe is retired.

The butterfly is an older one from Impression Obsession while the word dies are both from Winnie & Walter's The Big, The Bold & the Happy, and The Big, The Bold and You coordinating dies.  These are available at the Winnie & Walter Shop here: Winnie & Walter Store.

My card base is made from an 8.5 x 5.5 inch piece of Stamper's Select White Cardstock scored at 4.25". The thing that took the most time here was waiting for the watercolor paper to dry.  Of course, it was warped once it was dry, but I very lightly misted the back side of it with plain water then ran it through my Cuttlebug with an embossing pad instead of an embossing folder and a clean, uncut plate on the top side of the panel.  This flattens it out very well and makes it easy to adhere.

Cuttlebug Shop at: SSS	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	PTI Stamper's Select White Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS
SSS Hollyhock Ink Shop at: SSS	SSS Stitched Rectangles Dies Shop at: SSS	Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Mini Round Ink Blending Tool Shop at: SSS
Tonic 6 Inch Personal Trimmer Shop at: SSS	Tonic Polished Gold Mirror Cardstock Shop at: SSS	Tsukineko Sheer Sparkle Shimmer Spritz Shop at: SSS	W&W - The Big, The Bold &The Happy Shop at: SSS
W&W - The Big, The Bold & You Shop at: SSS

Sunday Stamps Challenge

Today I have a card for the Sunday Stamps Challenge #144 - Seeing Stars.  My hubby's twin brother and his wife have a classic car that they take around the country to various car shows and this past weekend they won 4 of the awards at a car show in Wichita, Kansas for their car.  That meant a "Congratulations" card was in order so this is what I came up with to send to them.

I used True Black Cardstock to make my card base.  The background panel is made from a designer paper that I found a few months ago at Michaels while we were visiting our daughter and her family in Dallas.  I wish I had gotten a couple more sheets as this is a great one for men.  It doesn't photograph all that well, but it's not terrible either.  This paper is printed with the grey scale triangle pattern but is also a gold shimmer cardstock.  So I pulled in the gold stars and banner for a really classic look.  It's not too feminine but not too manly either; it's just a nice balance.

The stars are cut using an old Cookie Cutter Die set from Quickutz, the Banner is from Papertrey Ink's Tag Sale: Quilted and the Congrats is from Winnie and Walter's The Big, The Bold & You Die Cuts.  

This was a very fast and easy card to make and the Black White & Gold make a very striking combination. Anytime I use a dark colored card base, I always cut a Stitched Rectangle Panel to to go on the inside of the card so I don't have to try to find a white pen that works to write a note.  

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'm still trying to get back in the groove and catch up from a 2 week vacation.  There were a few blog posts that went live while I was at CHA so be sure to check out those blog posts for my projects.  

Shhhhh.....

I'm working on a requested project right now that has had a few challenges but has mostly just been fun.  A couple of ladies I know are in a Sorority and they have Secret Sisters in this group. I looked everywhere I could think of to find some kind of stamp set for Secret Sisters with no luck at all.  I've done a Secret Sister thing through my job in the past and I know how difficult it is to find anything for that specific purpose.  Finally, I had a custom stamp made that has "Secret Sisters" in a nice font so that I can pair it with other stamps and dies to make some customized cards.

I made a trip into town yesterday to pick up a pad of my favorite watercolor paper which is the Canson XL Bristol 96# paper.  I buy it in a 9 x 14 pad and cut my own panels out of each sheet. That is the most ecomomical way to be able to use it since I am getting 6-8 panels out of each sheet.  It costs about $.36 for each sheet when you use a 40% off coupon and then I get a minimum of 6 panels out of it making them just $.06 each. While I was in there, I noticed that they had all of the Paper Studio line (Hobby Lobby's own brand) at 50% off so I went in search of a paper pad that I saw a few weeks ago, but thought I would wait for a sale to purchase.

Yay - they still had some left.  This foiled paper is a great buy at $10.00 and there are 80 sheets in this 8.5 x 11 pad -- 5 different designs in 8 different colors and two sheets of each one.  I can get lots of front panels out of this stack! The only color I feel is missing is Red.  The little foiled hearts on a red background would have been so great for valentines, but I just used Pink instead.  These cards are for women, afterall.

I cut my background panels in the pink heart foiled paper using a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die in the largest size.  Next I cut the Love Text Block from Gold Foil Card Stock out of my scraps.  That die came from Paper Trey Ink.  I didn't want the die to compete with the background panel, so I cut a vellum panel to put behind it.  The die is slightly larger than 2.75 x 3.75 inches so it was easy to cut the right size vellum panel for it.

The inside sentiment is  a combination of stamps from Winnie & Walter's The Big, The Bold & The Happy Stamp Set along with the custom Secret Sister stamp that I had made.

On all of the cards I have made for this project, some include the Secret Sister stamp on the inside and some on the front.  Just wherever I feel it looks the best. I'm very happy with how these cards have worked out.  I have a few more to do for this series so I will be back soon with another project to share with you. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a fantastic day.