Watercolor Comfort

Hello!

Today's card is another sympathy card, and this time I wanted to play with my Gelatos a bit for a soft, watercolor effect.

I first heat embossed the phrase "With Sympanty" in a loose pattern on white card stock and then scribbled a few colors of Gelatos on top.  A few spritzes of water, some rubbing with fingertips, and voila, a soft, watercolor effect layer.  (That blue looks a whole lot darker than it really is.)  I rubbed the color off the the words to help them stand out a bit more.  This is otherwise known as the emboss resist method.  I didn't want this phrase to stand out but to act as more of a subtle watermark on the layer.

I then adhered it to a dry embossed layer in the same color as the base.  No stark contrasts needed on this one.

The center oval was sponged around the edges while still in the die then adhered to a doily diecut.  Pearls adorn the die cut for added elegance, and a soft, seam binding triple bow complete the front.

The inside is kept quite clean with a simple sentiment leaving plenty of room for a personal message.

Thank you for joining me today and I wish you a lovely, joyful day full of that which makes you happy.

Happy crafting!

This card is for sale in my Etsy shop.

Celebrate World Card Making Day with the StampNation Design Team

This is today's second post.  To see Day Four of Inspired By Stamping's Birthday Bash sneak peeks, please go here.  (Or scroll down.)

Hello!

Did you know that today is World Card Making Day?  Did you even know there WAS such a day?  Well it's today, and I'd like to ask you to join me on a blog hop around the globe with the lovely and talented StampNation Design Team!

We are traveling to each of the 16 countries we have represented in our StampNation and learning a bit about each culture and how they celebrate holidays. Then we are inspired by a photo inspiration that represents each culture.

Fun, right?!

That is where the Blog Hop comes in. We want to share this journey with YOU too!

Each DT member picked her favorite photo inspiration and card to post on her blog.  I chose to make a card representing a certain country (more on that in a bit) and used this photo as my inspiration:

Now I can honestly confess that in the nearly 3 years I lived in that country back in the '80's, I never knew that they colored eggs for certain festivals, but they're gorgeous and I love all the colors and patterns, so I chose to do a card with lots of color and pattern.

I used Gelatos on dampened watercolor paper as my medium and then heat embossed the pattern with gold embossing powder, having first applied the Versamark through a swirly stencil.

The bow is made of seam binding with some gold thread ribbon and a tiny rhinestone added for good measure. The tiny tag has been heat embossed around the edges with gold embossing powder. 

 
So now the fun continues because we are asking you to guess the country the photo comes from, then to leave a comment telling what country you think I've chosen.

One lucky commenter from each blog will win a 3-month subscription to StampNation.

Then, one Grand Prize Winner will win a 3-month subscription as well as all of the cards Catherine made for the event as well as some from the Design Team!

Remember to hop along to each DT member leaving comments along the way to increase your chance of winning!!!

Catherine Pooler

Maureen Merritt

Kristie Goulet

Heather North

Shea Marshall - (you are here!)

Monica Weaver (Guest Designer)

Thank you for joining me, and we'll see you around the hop!



Happy crafting!

*Please Note: To be eligible to win the Grand Prize, you must comment on all Design Team blogs. You do not have to answer the question correctly to be eligible to win. Comments will close on Thursday, October 10th at 11:59 pm Eastern Time. Design Team will announce winners on StampNation and their personal blogs on Friday, October 11th.