Joy

 

 My Favorite Things' Summer School is in full swing! Day 4's lesson was all about ombre. I decided to make a Christmas card, inspired also by Christmas Card Throwdown's August Color Challenge palette of orange, green, & gold. I based my design on the Sketch Challenge #501 from My Favorite Things.

The bands in the sketch combined with the ombre lesson made me think of faux dip dye. Kristina Werner had taught a lesson on this technique in one of the Spring Card Camps at Online Card Classes a few months ago. I found a scrap of Canson Montval 140 lb. watercolor paper in my stash that was already a great size. I trimmed it down just a smidge to square it up, and tore one short side. I then taped the 3 untorn sides to a cutting board to help keep warping to a minimum. I used only one shade of watercolor--Mijello Mission Gold's Hunter's Green--to paint the panel. I began by painting a very dilute mix for the first layer, and dried it with my heat tool. I kept adding more layers of paint, drying in between, and not going as far up the panel as the previous layer. For the bottom-most section, I went over the green with Indigo, which darkened it up considerably. I dried the panel one last time, removed it from my board, & die cut it with the stitched rectangle from My Favorite Things' "Blueprints 13" set (discontinued). I left the torn edge uncut, however.

I stamped the greeting, from My Favorite Things' "Joyous Christmas Sentiments" set (discontinued) in Versamark ink onto a scrap of off-white cardstock. I heat embossed it with Ranger Gold Super Fine Detail embossing powder, then die cut it with a circle die. I cut a dark orange mat with a slightly larger scalloped circle die, and glued the pieces together. I glued that centered on my watercolor panel. I matted the panel with more of the same dark orange, and adhered it to a white A2-size card base. Finally, I added 3 gold sequins for even more of a festive touch.

I'm also entering this in Creative Knockouts Challenge #362: "Sparkle & Shine."