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Adding a Subtle Sparkle to Your Image

September 7, 2022

Hello, Marla here with a quick Christmas card. Christmas creeps up on me every year, so I am bound and determined to get a good jump on my cards this year. I kept my card very subtle today with cool toned watercolors. I started off in one direction but changed my mind on the design midway through. Do you ever do that? Let’s jump into the card.

As I mentioned I kept this card pretty simple. I stamped my image from the Beautiful Blooms “Noel” stamp set onto watercolor cardstock with clear embossing ink. I used the same ink to stamp my sentiment and then add Brutus Monroe’s “Silver Sparkle” embossing powder and heat set. The secret ingredient in this embossing powder is the addition of glitter. The addition of glitter really steps up the end result and adds a wow factor that is difficult to photograph.

I used several types of watercolors to color the image. I began with my metallic Finetec watercolors. As you can see, as it dried it was pretty light in color. To add depth, I used my Karin markers and added more intense greens and teals to the leaves for deeper tones. The background needed color, so I added a beautiful blue from my ECD watercolors around the image. Even with the addition of the blue watercolor, the panel was still looking plain and needed more sparkle. I covered up the image and added water splatters to the background. Before the water could dry, I added more of the sparkle embossing powder over the water splatters and heat set. Did you know that you could emboss with water?

Here’s where my card took a turn. The single layered panel was still a little plain, so I used my Tim Holtz “Deckle Edge” trimmer to cut down my panel. I added “Weathered Wood” Distress Oxide ink around the edges to draw your eye in towards the image. I had cut off the sentiment and needed to add a new one. I pulled a smaller sentiment from my crafty stash and heat embossed it using fine silver embossing powder. Next, I added a navy blue 1/4″ mat behind the watercolored panel. I felt the addition of the navy mat helped the watercolored panel pop a little more. To complete my card, I adhered the layered panels to a red A2 card base.

As I mentioned, the sparkle was hard to capture in a photo, so I am sharing this video so you can see the impact the glitter in the embossing powder has on the card.

Thank you so much for joining me. I have added a link to the Beautiful Blooms “Noel” stamp below for easy shopping. Until next time… Marla

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  • Arlene September 7, 2022 at 12:50 pm

    I’m sure it’s gorgeous in person – sparkle is so hard to photograph.

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