New Technique

Our demonstrator meeting is tonight, Yay!!  They're so much fun!!  Our swap theme is new technique.  So I thought and thought, what could I do???  Then this post came to my inbox and I LOVED this card by Amanda, so I knew I would try this technique, I'm not sure what it's called.  Isn't this card pretty though??!!   Here's how I got this look. 

First, stamp and emboss your image on WATERCOLOR PAPER.  It's so important that you do it on the watercolor paper, it's the only paper that can withstand all the moisture that will be put on later.  I embossed my image with White embossing powder, clear would probably work too.  Then sponge your ink onto your paper.  I used Soft Sky, Tempting Turquoise and Island Indigo.  I just used my sponges and classic pads, starting with the lightest color first.  Where your image is embossed it will resist the ink. 

Next, get a spray bottle with water and spray your paper.  It doesn't have to be dripping wet, but it needs to be wet enough that the colors blend together and spread.  Use your heat tool to dry your paper now.  I guess you could let it air dry, but it could take a while and part of the look achieved is through the heat tool rapidly drying the paper.

Then, get out your iron.  I'll be the first to admit that I use my iron more for craft projects then I do for clothing.....yes I'm house maker of year!  Seriously though, I have 2 children....small children....children who stain clothing....children who change clothes 3 times a day.....children who sometimes refuse to wear clothing.  The majority of my wadrobe consists of jeans, yoga pants and t-shirts, none of which need ironing.  I do own an ironing board, but for craft projects I've found it's just easier to use a kitchen towel on my kitchen counter :)  With scrap paper under and on top of your watercolor paper, iron your paper.  Yes IRON your paper, no I'm not crazy :) 

I know this picture is hard to see but if you look carefully you can see that the iron heated the embossing powder and it transferred OFF the watercolor paper and ONTO the scrap paper.  SO COOL!!!  I'm so pleased with this technique, I know there's lots of steps but it's so worth it and really it goes pretty quickly. 

To finish the card I added a greeting from the Regarding Dahlias stamp set.  Then I added a button and some bakers twine.  I love bakers twine :)  I'll share more about the meeting, including my 3 minute demo next week. 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!