I Really, Really, REALLY Miss You

The "By Design" class at Camp Scrap for Week 4 is a sketch that May Flaum, our camp director, calls "title in the middle." It's really more for scrapbook layouts, where you put your title in the middle of the layout and surround it with photos or other things. But she did demonstrate a card, so I took my inspiration from that to do this card. I also channeled my inner mixed media artist, using gelatos, Distress ink, and clear embossing powder on my focal panel.

The challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge blog is "Emboss It." This could involve dry embossing, heat embossing, or embossing paste. I used both heat and dry embossing on this card.

I started by choosing one of the embossing folders from Lifestyle Crafts' "Bloom" set. Then I looked for a greeting that was basically oval in shape, & found this one from Stampabilities. I paired it with one of Spellbinders "Classic Ovals LG" dies. I needed to make an embossing diffuser, so the center portion of the panel would not be embossed. So I cut a piece of matboard to the same size as my watercolor panel, and used the oval die to cut a hole in the middle of the matboard piece. I spritzed the watercolor piece with water, to give a better embossed impression, and placed it in the embossing folder, which I taped shut. Then I taped my diffuser in place on top of the folder and ran it through my Grand Calibur die cutting machine.

I stamped my greeting in the non-embossed area using Brushed Corduroy Distress ink, and clear heat embossed it. Then I took 4 colors of gelatos in the yellow/orange/red family, and scribbled each on my non-stick craft sheet. I sprayed the embossed watercolor panel with water, and used my water brush to pick up the gelato colors. I spread the yellow around the center, then went on to orange, and finished with red. After hitting it with my heat tool to dry it, I went back in with another wash of the same gelatos to deepen the colors.

After it dried, I matted the watercolor panel on a piece of brown cardstock, matted that with a light teal cardstock, and mounted the whole panel to my card base.