Background Stamp: Embossing/Watercoloring

 Hello!

After embossing the stamped background image yesterday, I did make a card (saving the other backgrounds for future use).

Finished card

I decided to use the card front I'd stamped with clear embossing ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder.

I decided to use watercolor pencils to fill in the many spaces between the embossed clear lines.

Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Pencils

I pulled out my Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Pencils, and began scribbling roughly where the flowers/leaves were in the design (it's a very detailed image, AND the white on white made it hard to see the details). You can see the scribbled design in the photo with the pencils.

Then I used a watercolor wet brush pen to quickly color in each area. You fill the base with water, and then squeeze it as needed to wet the brush. When I was going to work on an area with a different color of pencil scribbling, I just wiped the brush tip on the side of the other hand--while squeezing the pen to release water--to quickly clean the brush and keep going.

Close-up to show the white embossing lines

Here's a close-up--you can see that I definitely colored across the white lines, because it was so detailed. Still, I did stay true to the main flowers and leaves.

You can also see that I forgot to wet brush that green leaf (top of the image)--I had to go back and do that one. I'd actually forgotten to color (with pencil) some of one edge of the design, so I'd gone back and done that quickly--then I forgot to wet brush that leaf!

Can you see the petal mistake?

I realized that I had colored one of the flower petals green initially--thinking it was a leaf. When I realized my mistake, I added purple, but that petal still looked odd--not like the others.

What to do after all of that work? Well, you certainly could toss it out, but why do that? You could also try to trim it off--a bit hard here since it's right in the middle. Take a look at the finished card (top photo) to see what I did.

A quick tilt from portrait to landscape orientation, and then a quick shape to cover it. Woot!

Wishing you a sunshiny day--go out and smell some flowers, if you can!