Embossed & Watercolored Tiles Holiday Card

a2z Scrapbooking's current challenge at their blog is to use at least 2 Hero Arts "hard" products, like stamps or stencils. Since I've started creating this year's Christmas cards, I decided to do something based on this challenge--kind of killing 2 birds with one stone! :)

I didn't use a sketch, instead basing my card design on this card I'd created earlier this year. I also utilized a technique that Kristina Werner demonstrated in Online Card Classes' "Stretch Your Stamps 2" a few months ago.

I stamped this Hero Arts background stamp onto a piece of Strathmore Multi Media Paper, and heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. I used Master's Touch watercolors to paint in the different areas of the design, going in a basically rainbow order, so the colors wouldn't get muddy where they blended.

When the watercolor panel dried, I cut it into 1" square tiles. I arranged some of them around the perimeter of a piece of cardstock I'd cut to 4x5.25". (I'd actually ended up with more tiles than I'd needed.) When I got them like I wanted, I glued them down. I stamped my greeting, from Hero Arts' "Merry Christmas Message" set, in the middle with Versamark ink, and white heat embossed it. Then I just adhered the completed panel to a white A2 card base. A simple card, though not one I would use for mass-production, since the watercoloring did take quite some time.

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

A Blog Named Hero's Challenge #53: Stretch Your Stamps (cut up background stamped piece)
a2z Scrapbooking's World Card Making Day Challenge #2: Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Use Watercolors"
Hero Arts' Holiday Challenge: "Anything Goes"