Creation Station Exploring Embossing Blog Hop

Embossing is one of my favourite techniques in card marking--dry embossing adds so much depth and dimension, and the magic of heat embossing never fades!  For our Creation Station Exploring Embossing Blog Hop I used both of these techniques to create this gnome card:

For those who have hopped here from Kathy's Faithful INKspirations blog, thanks for popping by!  You can keep following the hop by clicking the "Next Up" button at the end of my post.

There is so much to talk about on this card, but let's start from the base and work our way up.  The card base itself is a Thick Basic White Cardstock piece cut to 5.5" x 8.5" and folded at 4.25".  I then added a panel of Basic White Cardstock, 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" that I dry embossed using the Gingham Embossing Folder.  Dry embossing is a great way to add texture to your project without adding more colour if you are keeping your project clean and simple.

I added a 2 5/8" strip of Sun Prints DSP to a piece of Blushing Bride Cardstock, and then trimmed a narrow border across just the top.  The Sun Prints DSP has amazing deep blues and purples, but the other side of the paper are patterns in Gray Granite, which I gravitate towards.  I thought this one looked like a wheat field, a perfect home for my family of gnomes.

The gnomes were created by heat embossing three images from the Kindest Gnomes Stamp Set in White Embossing Powder onto Watercolour Paper.  Heat embossing makes water colouring so easy!  It creates a little ridge that is perfect for keeping your coloured water in the right spot, and avoid any messy mingling.  

I decided that my gnomes should all be dressed the same--I mean, the Smurfs all wore the same outfit, right? :)  So my guys have Mint Macaron hats and pants with Blushing Bride shirts.  I love how you get variation in colour with watercolouring so easily...always start in the same spot when applying your colour (ie. for my gnomie hats, I always started in the bottom corners) and then the colour naturally fades as you move out, giving amazing highlights.  

My gnome faces, hair and hands are coloured with Pale Papaya, Pool Party, Soft Suede, and Crumb Cake Inks, and their little matching shoes are all Crumb Cake Ink.  Aren't they just adorable?!  Once coloured and dry I die cut each gnome with the matching die from the Gnomes Dies and added them to my card front with Dimensionals.

Finally, I heat embossed my sentiment, from the Sending Smiles Stamp Set in White Embossing Powder on a scrap of Gray Granite Cardstock and die cut it with one of the labels in the Sending Dies Set (you get two of varying lengths in the set).

For the inside of my card I started with a piece of Basic White Cardstock cut to 5 1/8" x 3 7/8", and layered it onto a 4" x 5.25" piece of Blushing Bride.  I added a 1/2" strip of the Sun Prints DSP to the bottom, and another watercoloured gnome for decoration.  I can't get enough of these cuties!

Thank you for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed my project and got some embossing ideas for your next card.  I'd love to hear from you in the comments below before you hop along to Yvonne Spikmans at The Creative Teacup.

Happy Crafting,

Barb