Watercolor Cards with Embossed Stamps

Chasity is going to add lots of pretty colours to your cards by showing you a fantastic stamping and embossing technique combined with splashes of Kelly Creates watercolor inks.

Kelly Creates Supplies:  Watercolor Paper, Watercolor Inks Set 1 Warm, Watercolor Inks Set 2 Cool,  Palette with Pipettes, Round Brush Set, Water Brushes, Stamps sets (Wreath Stamps, Mandala, Tropical, Floral, Traceable Bouncy Celebration Stamps, And Traceable Inspirational Phrase Stamps), Acrylic Block and Ink Set, Galaxy Washi Tape

OTHER SUPPLIES: Paper Trimmer, Scissors, Embossing Powder: Clear and Gold, Embossing Heat Gun, Pigment Ink Pad, White, Kraft and color Cardstock, Adhesive, Embellishments of choice, Baker’s Twine/Jute

Hi there creative friends! Happy August! It’s heating up in Utah, with temps this week in the triple digits.  Meanwhile, I am ready for Fall weather and all things Pumpkin Spice.  Am I the only one who is ready for all the pumpkins?

Today, I want to share a fun technique with you using stamping, embossing and the Kelly Creates Watercolor Inks. This really easy resist technique works beautifully with the watercolors.

When you emboss stamped images with embossing powder and an embossing heat gun, and use Kelly Creates Watercolor Inks, the embossed image will RESIST the watercolor! You can achieve some cool effects.

I started with Kelly Creates watercolor paper and cut my paper down to 5” x 7” pieces. I want to demo the techniques first, then show you how you can apply them to your every day crafting projects! You know I love making handmade cards, but you can use this technique on your planners, art journals, mixed media projects, scrapbook layouts and more.

To begin, choose some Kelly Creates stamps to practice the embossing technique. I chose a Mandala, some florals, and some sentiments. Embossing will follow the same steps no matter which stamps you choose.

Make sure that you are using pigment ink for the stamps. This is the best ink to use with the embossing powders because it stays wet longer, allowing the embossing powers to stick to it.

Ink your stamp with pigment ink. I used the Kelly Creates acrylic block from the Stamp & Ink Pad set to mount my stamp before inking. I love these acrylic blocks because they are great sizes for words, sentiments and florals and fit ALL of Kelly’s stamps. Not to mention the printed grids make it so much easier to line up the stamps. Stamp the image on the watercolor paper.

Next, open your embossing powder, and cover the inked image on the paper with the embossing powder. Be sure to cover the entire image. Lift the watercolor paper and tap off the embossing powder. I usually tap the excess powder on a scrap piece of cardstock that is folded so I can easily pour it back into the embossing powder container. Makes it last much longer!

Once the extra powder is removed, (don’t forget to tap the paper so the extra comes off) use an embossing heat gun to heat the image with the embossing powder. The heat will melt the powder, and leave a shiny image! In my projects today, I used clear and gold embossing powders. NOTE: I recommend fine or extra fine embossing powder. The clear embossing powder will leave the image whatever color pigment ink used, just shiny! Let’s start with the gold embossing powder. This is embossing powder is opaque.

You can see the gold in this image and it’s shiny and raised. This is great for watercolor, when you want a little more control for your colors and where they go.  Because the embossed image is raised, the watercolor stays in the area you put it.

Next, let’s try the Clear embossing Powder. Remember this is a translucent powder and will show whatever color pigment ink you use. I chose to use white ink, because when I emboss, then watercolor, I wanted the resist to be white.

Following the same steps, I stamped, powdered and heat embossed some flowers and leaves!  They are a little hard to see on white paper, but I promise, once we add some watercolors, they will pop with color!

Next, decide on a color palette you would like to use for the flowers. I went with Rose, Orange and Yellow Watercolor Inks from the Kelly Creates Inks Set 1 “Warm”  and Emerald and Teal from the “Cool” Set 2 for the leaves.

Now, paint the watercolor ink on the leaves and flowers using a Kelly Creates water brush or lettering wood brush. Try different watercolor techniques. Start with just water and add some color. Add a little color and go back and add some more to give darker shadows… Play around until you get the results you like! I love the bright, tropical look these flowers and leaves have. I also love the resist from the embossing, and keeping the color right where I want it.  I will show you some awesome projects to use these on later!

Next, I want to share a fun resist technique with words!

Choose a word, words or sentiment from one of the Kelly Creates Traceable stamp sets. I love these stamp sets because it looks like I wrote the word, just without the work!

I chose the word “hello” and embossed with white ink and Clear embossing powder.

I also chose the sentiment “happy birthday”. This example is already embossed.

The next step is to pick watercolors that you want to use to go over the word or sentiment. Again, I went with Warm Inks from Set 1 for the “hello” embossed image, and Cool Inks from Set 2 for the “happy birthday” sentiment.

Just load your paintbrush with the watercolor and paint right over the embossed area. The raised, embossed word with resist the paint. This is such a fun technique! Here is what that same resist looks like with the gold embossing powder! The creative possibilities are really endless.

The next technique is kind of the reverse of what we just did. Instead of stamping first, I applied the watercolor first, then stamped and embossed a floral frame! It’s just a different look, a little more loose if you will. But equally as fun!

Start with the watercolor….

Then add the stamp….

Then emboss with gold!

I would for sure cut this out and create a fun frame for a card or layout! Here is a Floral frame I did with the White ink and Clear embossing powder, then watercolor.

OK… I know that is a lot of different techniques to try… but I encourage you to give them a go. It’s the same supplies, just trying them different ways to see what you like the best. I think I like the Clear embossing powder the best!

Now, I want to show you what you can make with these colorful embossed, watercolor creations!

I am going to start with a pretty background you can make quickly for a card using the Kelly Creates water brush, the acrylic block you used for stamping, and the Kelly Creates Watercolor Inks.  Start by adding water to the acrylic block with the water brush. Just squeeze the barrel of the water brush that is filled with clean water and brush it around on the acrylic block.

Then add a drop or two of any Kelly Creates watercolor ink.  I used Rose from the Warm Set 1. Turn the block over and press the inky side down onto one of the 5” x 7” piece of Kelly Creates watercolor paper that you cut earlier.  This creates a vibrant watercolor background for those cute embossed watercolor stamps you made. Set aside and let dry.

Once it is dry, adhere it on a piece of folded card stock to create a cute card with all your stamped images.

I used Kelly Creates Galaxy Washi Tape and layered my hand cut stamped, embossed elements to the card. Using foam dots gives dimension!

Here is a scrapbook layout I created easily using some flowers I embossed, with white card stock and more Kelly Creates Washi Tape. Really simple layout, but packs a colorful punch!

Remember that Happy Birthday? Here is a simple card you can design following the same process. Everyone loves a handmade card!

Add some cardstock, washi and twine to recreate this look!

And finally, that Floral wreath makes the perfect window card.  Look at how beautifully the Kelly Creates sentiment stamps fit in the window! If you don’t want to write your sentiments, use Kelly Creates stamps and they will look hand lettered!

Here are some other cards that I whipped up with the same techniques. I love the colors and dimension you can create with embossing and watercolor.

I can’t wait to see what you come up with using embossed stamps and watercolor! Please share what you create with us. Tag your project with #kellycreates so we can find it online. Just a few supplies used in different ways, and you will be creating all kinds of fun projects!

For more crafty inspiration and cool projects, follow Chasity on Instagram @chiciscre8ive

Shop the supplies Chasity used in her projects by visiting http://www.KellyCreatesStore.com or clicking the affiliate links below. Or click HERE to see where Kelly Creates products are sold all over the world.

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