Autumn Colors Inspired Anniversary Card

It's me & my husband's 15th wedding anniversary yesterday. I finished creating this card only today so I was a bit late to hand the card to him. 

I took the leaf stamps from Essentials by Ellen Bold Blooms stamp set and from the Essentials by Ellen Bold Blossoms stand alone die set. I created by own stamps by die cutting fun foam using the dies. This is a technique I learned from Jennifer McGuire (http://www.jennifermcguireink.com/2015/10/video-stretching-holiday-supplies-blog-hop-giveaway.html. ) I also gave my fun foam stamps a 'hair-cut' based from Jennifer's tutorial. Although mine didn't come out perfect since the some part of the leaf spine was left uncut on the fun foam.

I chose the colors from my variety of ink pads, ranging from Hero Arts, Close To My Heart and Altenew. I randomly stamped the leaves on watercolor paper with the intent of making the leaves come from a center point of the panel. Aside from the various ink colors and various shades of colors, I also double stamped some images and used second generation stamping on some. This created more color shades as if I have a wider variety of ink pads. 

I applied watercolor to the leaves. Hero Arts does not react to water compared to the other two brands of ink that I used. I watercolored the background with a wash of gray, being careful not to reactivate the inked stamped leaves so no bleeding will occur. 

I die cut a circle on the watercolored panel. I traced this circle with a pencil onto a dark brown cardstock. This is where the sentiment will peek through the watercolored panel. I treated the area with a powder tool. I did some masking on the sentiment stamp in the Bold Blooms stamp set. I stamped the word 'happy' using Versamark ink and embossed it using white powder. Using an MFT stamp set, I stamped '15th' with Versamark and embossed it with Wow! Rich Gold powder. The word 'anniversary' came from a Technique Tuesday stamp set. After stamping this with Versamark ink, I embossed this in white powder. I treated the cardstock with the powder tool in between stamping. 

I sprayed the brown cardstock with mixed water and Ranger Pearl powder. I dried this with the the heat gun. I adhered the watercolored panel to the brown cardstock making sure the sentiment is showing thru the circle window. I in-laid a gold circle die cut to accent the circle. I adhered some Doodlebug sequins for added embellishment. I adhered this panel to a white note card. 

Thanks for viewing my blog. 

Maria Giselle B.

Stamp: Essentials by Ellen Bold Blooms, MFT First Place Award, Technique Tuesday Say-It Happy

Die: Essentials by Ellen Bold Blossom, MFT Circle Stax

I am submitting this creation to:

http://ellenhutson.typepad.com/the_classroom_new/2015/10/essentials-by-ellen-october-pinsights-challenge.html

CHALLENGE: Wonderful Watercolor

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/?p=3130