Today I’m sharing a card with a video that I made for my Doodling With Debby series for Simon Says Stamp. For last month’s video of a woman and umbrella with a textured background, I went for lots of technique and detail. For this month, I wanted to mix it up with an easy heat embossed and watercoloured background and include my key tip for keeping your white embossing white! I’ve linked all supplies with compensated affiliate links used where possible at no cost to you.
VIDEO
Watch below or in HD on YouTube.
EASY EMBOSSED WATERCOLOUR BACKGROUND
KEY INGREDIENTS
- Simon Says Stamp Heart To Heart Background
- CZ Design Miss You Dies and Reverse Miss You Sentiment Strips
- Mijjelo Mission Gold Watercolours
I used the Heart To Heart Background stamp, and although I love Daniel Smith watercolours, I’m also enjoying exploring other watercolours, and so I used the Mijello Mission Gold watercolour set on this card. I taped a piece of Fabriano Artistico Extra White cold-pressed watercolour card to a board and using a broad brush, liberally applied water over the piece. I chose an analogous colour scheme from the Mission Gold paints of Prussian Blue, Bright Clear Violet and Red Violet with a touch of Peacock Blue too. With the paper wet, the colours mix and blend, creating beautiful new hues. I didn’t mix the colours on the palette; all the action was right there on the paper. With a background like this, I aim to get a variation in the depth of colour with some darker patches and equally some lighter areas too, and a great way to do the latter is to add water splashes which push the colour away to the edges of the water droplets. I also added splatter from a solution of Perfect Pearls for a bit of sparkle to the mix and then dried with a heat tool.
It was only at this point that I got out the Heart To Heart Background stamp to white heat emboss the pattern. And this is my tip; you could’ve heat embossed the pattern before watercolouring which does allow for lovely puddling of the colour in the wells created from the heat embossing. However, you often get paint over the embossed lines, which isn’t always the easiest to wipe away without disturbing the painted background. By heat embossing after watercolouring you don’t have that problem, your beautiful white embossed lines will stay pristine and white.
I placed the Heart To Heart Background stamp in the Misti along with the watercoloured panel. I kept the paper in place with a piece of masking tape as I stamped this multiple times to get a good impression on the watercolour card. I treated the card with anti-static powder to prevent the embossing powder randomly sticking everywhere and then I inked the stamp with Versamark ink and gently pressed the stamp onto the card. My tip here is not to go in with heavy pressure but gently rub the stamp onto the card and repeat stamp several times. This way the resulting embossed lines will be as delicate as they are intended to be rather than heavy and squished out by too much pressure. I sprinkled the card with white embossing powder from Simon Says Stamp, making sure to cover the whole area and then gave it a good tap off before using a hot heat tool to melt the embossing powder.
I love splatter, I know it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but for me, it adds extra layers of colour and dimension and as such interest. I splattered with leftover paint, Perfect Pearls solution and white gouache. These may muddy the white embossed lines a little, and you could do this step before heat embossing to prevent that, but sometimes the splatter leaves a less than smooth surface and I didn’t want to risk lumps and bumps preventing me from getting the best embossed design.
I think we are all missing seeing people at the moment, family and friends in particular and so I pulled out the Miss You dies from CZ Design. These dies have the letters and then a background piece. I wanted to cut the words themselves from toning card. So, I took another piece of watercolour card and using the same Red Violet and Bright Clear Violet paints from the Mijello Mission palette, I quickly whipped up a custom piece of coloured card, dried with a heat tool and then ran the letters through my die cutting machine. I also cut the background piece from the plain watercoloured card while I did so. This way, everything matches up nicely.
I adhered the letters to their background with GinaK Connect glue and then added foam adhesive to the back. I took a coordinating sentiment from the Reverse Miss You sentiment strips from CZ Design and added foam adhesive to the back of that too. I then started playing around with placement I did debate whether to cut the watercoloured piece with a circle die as I felt the sentiment was getting a bit lost, however, in the end, I plumped on simply trimming the background down a bit. This leaves the focal point less lost in a big space and also frames the panel nicely with a broader border from the card base which I’d cut and scored from Ivory card.
I added foam adhesive to the back of the panel and adhered it to the card base and then, in turn, added the Miss You dies and coordinating sentiment. I die cut a few hearts from the leftover watercoloured card using the Holiday Shapes dies from Simon Says Stamp and adhered these with foam adhesive before taking them up a notch with a coating of Nuvo Crystal Glaze to give them a lovely shine. Following on from the shiny theme, I also added Nuvo Droplets and Little Things From Lucy’s cards pearls.
MORE INSPIRATION
This card again uses the Heart To Heart Background set and this time a collection of sentiments from the Love and Valentine’s Word Mix 2 set. You can find the original post here.
Here’s another one using the Cosmos Bloom Background and Distress Oxide sprays. You can find the original post here.
SUPPLIES
You can find links to the supplies I’ve used below; click on the picture or shop icon to get taken directly to the product. Where available I use compensated affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you! Items marked with an asterisk (*) provided by a store or the manufacturer. You can read my affiliate and product disclosure here. I genuinely appreciate your support.
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PIN ME
Summary of the project which gives all the views of the card in one photo :D I’d love if you pinned and called by on Pinterest :D
You have inspired me! I am going to craft out some time today on this holiday to try and do some watercolour backgrounds with white embossed backgrounds!
I’m just in love with your cards, looks perfect with alle these colors!
Thanks for sharing Debby!