12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 3

Regardless your watercoloring skills, today’s card will be a breeze! Using Jane Davenport’s Mermaid Markers (pre-inked watercolor pens) makes this project project quick as well.

Supplies

Canson XL Watercolor Paper & Tim Holtz Distress Sprayer filed with water

Jane Davenport The Color Institute Mermaid Markers in Lobster and Seaweed

VersaMark Watermark Ink and Wow! Embossing Powder in Sparkling Snow

Neenah 110lb Classic Crest cardstock for card base

Craft Foam

Gina K Connect Glue

Watercolor

First, I spritzed my paper with water using my Tim Holtz Distress Sprayer.

With my paper situated portrait I used side to side motions to add my watercolors in rectangular blocks. Drying between layers, I was able to saturate paint gaining bright and vibrant coverage.

Do not stress about being perfect! Part of the charm with watercolors is their imperfection.

Card Assembly

After drying the panel completely, I trimmed it down using an A2 Layers die from Waffle Flower.

I decided to heat emboss my sentiment, which can be a bit tricky on textured paper like watercolor paper.

First, treat paper with an anti-static tool. Next, use a stamp positioner to repeatedly stamp using VersaMark Watermark Ink. Multiple impressions are necessary to gain complete coverage.

Coat stamped area liberally with embossing powder (Wow! Sparkling Snow for today’s card). Tap off excess and set with a heat gun.

For areas light in embossing powder, use an embossing pen to fill in the areas and apply additional embossing powder prior to heating. If your entire image is light, stamp the entire image/sentiment again, ensuring careful placement of stamp and paper.

You can see the improvement adding additional VersaMark Ink can have on an embossed image.

While my card panel cools, I grabbed an A2 Frame die just smaller than my card panel and cut a piece of craft foam. I used Gina K Connect glue to adhere the foam to the back of my card panel, then the stack to my card base.