Tons of Fun Tuesday....

The New Year is off to a brand new start, and it's back to school for many of us teachers here in So Cal. Time just keeps flying by so fast.
I don't know about you, but I love sending thank you cards for gifts, nice gestures I receive.
I especially love making them, but in reality, that doesn't always happen.
Heather sent me this fabulous stamp set, Cuppy Cakes, and it's perfect for some fun thank you cards. It's also super fitting as those of you who read my blog or know me know I love to bake.

Today I'm going to show you how to emboss your stamped image and then use watercolor pastels to fill in some color on your images.

We are going to start with some supplies, you will need:
A card base (piece of cardstock, mine is white)
Embossing Ink (I use Versamark)
Embossing Powder (I used American Crafts Zing in Charcoal)
Craft Heat Gun (found at any Michaels or JoAnns)
Stamps (I used the Ippity Cuppy Cakes set)
Watercolor Pastels (I used Stampin Up's pastels)
Watercolor Pen (you can also use a small paint brush if you don't have this)
Tulle to tie on top if you want

We are going to start out with our stamp set:

Take your cupcake stamps out of the packaging and mount them (pull off backing and put them on an acrylic block)

Next, get your card base, Versamark and embossing powder ready.
Stamp your images onto your card using the Versamark clear ink.

 Then pour your embossing powder over your inked images (you don't want to leave the Versamark on the card too long or it will dry, so be fast and ready to dump your embossing powder).

Once you have the powder on there, shake off the excess and then flick the back of the card to remove even more. Continue stamping and pouring the powder until the entire card is covered the way you want it. If you have stray powder, take a thin paint brush and brush it off, because if you see powder now, it will be set there once you heat it up.
Once you are happy with your card and have the stray powder removed, heat the card using your head gun. You will see it melt. Be careful not to put the heat gun too too close to the card.
Once your images are all embossed, take out your watercolor pastels and go to town coloring like you did in kindergarten. No need to sweat the stray marks, they will get filled in when you add some water to the pastels.

 Above you see the bottom left with the pastels watercolored in using my watercolor pen, you can also use a fine paint brush as well.

 Color in all your images, and then paint with water.

 I added the "thanks" and decided it was still a bit too plain for my taste, so I added some tulle.

 Final product:

Please forgive my flashed images, the sun escaped before I returned home today. We went to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and I loved it. I'm not ashamed to say I like Jeremy Renner much more than Tom Cruise :)
Happy Tuesday to you all.
Have tons of fun creating something fun.
--Amy