Watercoloring & Embossing on Vellum

In my last post, I mentioned playing with older supplies. I enjoyed playing with my Twinkling H2O's so much that I wanted to continue using them. I am amazed at how much I have used them through the years and how much of them are still left. I'm not sure they are still be made, so I'm glad they don't get used up quickly.

I was excited this week to see Freshly Made Sketches #446. I have been intrigued by slimline cards here lately as I have begun to see more and more of them being made and shared on social media. I thought this was the perfect week to try one.

I pulled my inspiration from a decorative piece I made a few years ago that hangs on one of my inspiration boards. 

Using the same color scheme and vellum I created a slimline card with a similar feel.

Heat embossing on vellum can be really tricky. The best advice I can give is to go slow and hold the embossing gun as far back as possible from the vellum while you are embossing. That way it will reduce the warping or burning of the vellum. 

The stamped leaves came from an older Cocoa Daisy stamp set and are no longer available. They are stamped with Versamark ink & embossed with white embossing powder. My favorite white embossing powder is Hero Arts White Embossing Powder because it is a crisp, clean white. The leaves are watercolored with Twinkling H2O watercolors. Once dry, I buffed the images to remove any watercolor that bled onto the white embossing. 

The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Thanks and Leaves stamp set and is also embossed in white embossing powder.

I used foam tape behind all the bigger leaves to adhere the vellum piece to the white card base. I finished the card with a sprinkling of sequins from my stash. 

This card made me question why I don't play with the vellum in my stash more often. It was a fun card to make and makes me yearn for the cooler temperatures of fall. 

Embossed Watercoloring

This week I began digging around through some of my older supplies, simply looking for something to create with & ended up pulling out some things I haven't used in a long time:

-An older embossing folder from Sizzix ( I think it came in a two-pack from Hobby Lobby)
-Twinkling H2O's Shimmering watercolor paints  (I bought these many years ago from a local shop)
-Two of my favorite pumpkin woodblock stamps from Hero Arts (old, old.....really old)
- A small scripty sentiment stamp from Ali Edwards (way back when she was making stamp set with Technique Tuesday)

I decided to try watercoloring the recessed portion of my embossed image with Twinkling H2O's in the color Copper Penny. It was definitely redder than I wanted since I was playing along with The Color Throwdown #604 color palette, but I decided it could be considered terra cotta, so I went with it. Here is the inspiration piece and my card is underneath.

I figured out that watercoloring the recessed part took much longer than expected and required a steady hand. I love white pumpkins in the fall, so I decided to make my pumpkins white, but I didn't want them to be stark white and blend into the white in the background. So I adhered some pages from an old dictionary to some white cardstock and then stamped and fussy cut the images. Because they now had a mixed media kind of feel, I splattered them in Perfect Pearl Mists in Sunflower Sparkle (brighter gold) &  Heirloom Gold (vintage, darker gold). I still have both of these as mists, but Ranger has discontinued making the mists. Once I run out I plan to buy the powders and mix them with water to replenish my mists (Probably using the same mist containers and mixing a full jar of powder and water to fill the jar). 

Once I layered the embossed piece on top of the black cardstock it felt unfinished and that it was lacking something. I decided to add gold embossing powder along the edges of the embossed piece to give it more definition. I love the way it turned out. 

The stamped pieces are sitting on a scrap of black cardstock with the gold embossed Ali Edwards sentiment. I wound some black thread around my fingers and then sandwiched it messily between the embossed piece and the pumpkins. Sequins are from an older Simon Says Stamp release. 

I had not played with some of those materials in years and I love that I was able to dust them off and make something that doesn't feel dated.

 Love how this turned out and how it pushed me creatively.