The little things that make me happy here on Bliss Road~~Emily Keaton

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

You Warm My Heart

Hey, can I just say that any day that includes watercoloring is a good day in my book? This card was a fun one to put together. I am really loving the results of heat embossing in black on watercolor paper. It gives me a nice, dark image on the textured watercolor paper which I am often not able to otherwise achieve with straight stamping on the bumpy grain. I just wish I could get the hang of ridding the image of all stray grains of EP. I still get embossed "freckles" even though I use an embossing buddy!! So please excuse the mess while I try to get on the learning curve. :(

With this card I am giving another SNEAK PEEK of a soon-to-be-released clear stamp set from Mark's Finest Papers. This set is called Snowman Country, and it has a cozy, homespun feel. Wait 'til you see the whole set next week!

Oh, and I'm also debuting my new baker's twine!! Have loved the look of this twine for months, and I finally ordered some. A blogging friend, Kristy of Kristy's Crafts, pointed me to her affordable source of baker's twine at the Annie42 Etsy shop, which offers baker's twine in eight colors and, with low shipping costs, has some of the best prices around.

Here are the challenges I played in making this 5" x 6.5 " card:
  • Splitcoast sketch challenge SC301
  • Tuesday Throwdown: Challenge #20, Chipboard. I dug into a package of Target Dollar Spot holiday chipboard letters that my DS gave me for Christmas last year.
  • City Crafter Challenge Blog: Week 25, Hooray for the Holidays--create a holiday project for any holiday. I've got Christmas covered with this one.
  • Paper Sundaes: Something from Your Stash. Those three red/black swirly buttons came from my vintage button stash.
  • Stamptacular Sunday: Challenge #79, Layer It On, to use at least 5 layers
Thanks for dropping in!!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers: Snowman Country
Paper: SU basic black, The Paper Company, Canson watercolor paper, DMD DP (from WalMart)
Ink: Versamark, Rubber Stampede (scarlet, deep green, black--for watercoloring)
Accessories: CM corner rounder punch, SU scallop border punch, black EP, heat tool, foam tape, buttons from my stash, baker's twine, chipboard alphabet piece
Techniques: watercolor painting, embossing

16 comments:

Marisa said...

Great use of the layout and I love the image. Lovely touch with the buttons and the twine. Well done. Glad your day was filled with some water colouring :)

Fiona said...

this is lovely and great colour combo. Thanks for joining us at Paper Sundaes this week.

Fi

Meg said...

What a cute card! If you ever solve the problem of embossing freckles, please let us know!!

Kristy Smith said...

I love love LOVE this card! The twine just looks fabulous! This new country christmas set of stamps looks so SO cute! And the embossing freckles is a problem that I have as well! I use a really fine paintbrush to brush strays off, but I still manage to get freckles all the time too! Great work!

Kirsty Vittetoe said...

What a pretty christmas card, thanks for playing along with us at CCCB!

Benzi said...

This image reminds me of warm cozy nights in front of a fire with hot chocolate. Very pretty bg and awesome card! I swipe with baby wipes before embossing to rid the specks. It seems to work really well. I also use a large, soft brush to wipe away anything left...it's great for removing glitter, also. I'm not sure if baby wipes would ruin your watercolor, though. I have just used it when I'm embossing w/o the watercolor.

Mary Marsh said...

such a cute snowman emily-and i just love how you colored him. i just ordered some watercolor crayons so i am going to try my hand at this
thanks for the heads up on the bakers twine

Davi said...

Very fun Christmas card and great colors and nice embellies. Thanks for joining us at TT this week.

Unknown said...

Well you have created another worderful card..
That image is so cute.. Thanks for playing along with us this week at CCCB!

Ros said...

Beautiful ... and those button look good enough to eat! Thanks for playing at CCCB

Danielle Champagne said...

HI! Emily, I just love this image, it gives a warm feeling to this cold season. very nice choice of paper, and colors. Gorgeous layout, and beautiful layering. Thank's for playing along with us this week in our Stamptacular Layer-it-on challenge. Hope to see you again soon.
Hugs,
Danielle

Colleen Dietrich said...

Joel picked out a nice gift for Mommy last year, huh? The "Y" chipboard looks great on here, as does the twine. Thanks for the link, I may check it out sometime. And regarding 'freckles' on your paper when embossing - happens to me all the time, even with an embossing buddy! Somewhere else I had read to use a dryer sheet (in lieu of emb. buddy), but I haven't tried that yet.

Stacy Morgan said...

This is totally cute.

Marianne-db said...

What a cute christmas card! Great colors and I love the image!
Thanks for joining our fun at Stamptacular this week! Hope to see you again soon :-)
Hugs, Marianne

cnelson said...

Perfectly adorable! Thank you for playing along at CCCB!

France Ringuette said...

Really Cute ! Thanks for playing in our Paper Sundaes Challenge!