Water Color Emboss Resist

In yesterday's Hero Arts Blog Hop, both Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire did emboss resist with water color, so I took that as a sign I should give it (another) try. Here's my card, then I'll explain:

The first thing I did was line up the MFT Trendy Triangles stamps. I butt (butted?) them up against each other and it still left that big of a space between the stamped images. If you want them closer, you'll need to stamp them in sections.

After I got them lined up the way I wanted, I picked them up with my stamp press, inked them with Versamark, stamped them onto the water color paper, then I heat-embossed it with white embossing powder. Then the fun began!

Jennifer's tip for good blending is to wet the water color paper before you apply the ink, so that's what I did. Then I smooshed some Distress Squeezed Lemonade ink onto my craft mat and used a water brush without water in it to pick up the ink and spread it over the embossed design. The embossed areas resist the ink. I went for more intense colors, so I didn't spritz the ink on my craft mat.

I cleaned my brush and moved on to the next color until I'd covered all the embossed images, then I gently wiped off the excess ink from the embossing with a baby wipe and dried the paper with my heat tool.

The sentiment is from the Paper Smooches Word Salad set, and yes, I cut it in half.

My favorite part of this: coloring outside the lines! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

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So Trendy

While blurfing earlier today, I stumbled upon the mother lode of challenges. Yes, the current Simon Says Stamp Challenge is to use the following:

Yep: Neon, Hexagons and Chevrons. They said to use at least one of them, but being the over-achiever that I can be at times, I decided to use all three of them on the same card. The brain churned most of the day, and no, I didn't look at anyone else's.

As I started the actual attempt to get my ideas onto paper, I may or may not have muttered "it seemed like a good idea at the time", and more than once. I made two different cards, and actually executed my original idea, at least in part.

Here's one of them:

My original idea was to stamp chevrons in neon ink, then cut that into hexagons. It sorta worked. Here I used the chevron herringbone from the Clear & Simple Background Basics 1 set, and I stamped it in Hero Arts neon inks. I then cut those out with the MFT Hexagon dies. Did you know one of the dies cuts and one just embosses? It's true. Ask me how I know.

The hexagons looked lonely here, so I took a piece of left-over neon orange card stock I'd colored for another project and die-cut some hearts for the centers. Then the sentiment looked lonely, so I used the rest of the die-cut piece behind it. I originally had a piece of neon orange washi tape there, but it fought with the chevrons, so hearts it was.

For my next trick, I made this:

I inked the Hero Arts Chevron background stamp with three neon colors -- first yellow, then green, then blue. I also found some yellow herringbone designs on my blue ink pad, so be very, very careful or you'll cross-contaminate your ink pads. Ask me how I know, again.

I went wild and added a strip of neon pink washi to the card where the hexagons would go. This time when I cut the hexagons, I actually used the hexagon die that cuts. They stayed in place (didn't fall out) which was wonderful, since all I had to do was apply glue to the backs, line the scrap up on the hot pink washi, then press them into place, perfectly spaced.

The sentiment is from the Dylusions Say What You Mean set, stamped in neon blue. Even the pearls were colored with a neon Copic that I picked up during the same shopping spree where I bought the Dylusions stamps. It was a spendy weekend.

So I guess I've broken out of my "kids cards" mode, huh? :) 

Well, both of these are very bright, so maybe I'll work on something less likely to keep me up tonight. :) I've printed off even more challenges I won't get to, so I'd best get started.

Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe
Stamps: Hero Arts Heyday Sentiments, Clear & Simple Background Basics 1, Hero Arts Chevron background, Dylusions Say What You Mean
Ink: Hero Arts Neon Yellow, Neon Green and Neon Blue
Paper: PTI white 
Other: Pink neon washi tape, Taylored Expressions Heart border die, MFT Hexagons dies, Copic FYG1