Crafting and Caramel Sauce

I've been wanting to make some cards with a watercolor background for quite some time. Dawn McVey posted a "Make It Monday" video for PTI featuring watercolored backgrounds and heat-embossed sentiments. I loved the look. So, one night after everyone but Harrison (it was his "special time") went to bed, we broke out the watercolor paper and one of those $1.99 kid's art kits I got at Michael's during the holidays. We set out to painting some backgrounds.

There's a "drop" at the top that is a little darker. That was an accidental drip of water from Buddy's brush. :) I left it and didn't try to blend it in.  The sentiment is from Wonderful Words: Birthday. The word "birthday" was stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with white powder.  "Happy" and "to you" were stamped in Versafine Onyx Black. This was then mounted onto a panel of Tropical Teal and all that mounted onto a Rustic White base.   We gave this card to a good friend for his birthday - along with a jar of the best salted caramel sauce. Seriously, if you love caramel, you have got to try Brown-Eyed Baker's Salted Caramel Sauce. I like it in my coffee. And on a spoon. ;)  My friend, Kimberly, introduced me to the recipe. And for the record, I never use a thermometer when I make it. If I do, it burns - every. single. time. I have to go by how it looks and smells.




The next card Harrison wanted to make with me was his own. He chose these two colors - both in the "clay" family.  I painted the top part of the card - it is splotchy (which is the look I was going for). He painted the bottom, darker, smoother part of the card front. I stamped "Celebrate" from Think Big Favorites #13.  First, I tapped the stamp in Versamark, followed immediately PTI's Canyon Clay so that when I stamped onto the paper, the Versamark was on top and allowed me to heat-emboss with clear embossing powder.   We mounted this onto a Canyon Clay panel which was then put on a Rustic White base. Harrison was very pleased with how his card came out. :)

Then I got busy die cutting the word "birthday" from Wonderful Words: Birthday. I know several people have done it, but the first place I saw "stacked" die cuts was on JJ Bolton's blog. It was this layered "hello." (how fabulous is that?!) I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to do it, too.   Instead of a rainbow, I decided to do an ombre of blues: two layers each of Spring Rain, Blueberry Sky, Enchanted Evening topped with one layer of Rustic White. It is mounted on a Rustic White card that has been stamped with Circle Scribbles in Blueberry Sky and Enchanted Evening. I moved a stamp block that had some ink on it - and hit the "birthday". Arrrrrgh!  But, I decided to take a cue from Bob Ross and have a "happy accident." I stamped the scribbled lines on the word since everything was already glued together - the ink blobs just blend right in. The sentiment was stamped in Enchanted Evening. I love how this looks from the side...oops you can see how my "b" is lifting a little in this picture. Do me a favor, squint so you don't notice that part. ;)

My next crafting project is getting my pocket scrapping caught up. I'm anxious to get 2013 done so I can get into 2014 and break out my PTI Monthly Moments kits. I've been really inspired to make some fun changes by things I've seen the design team do. They're encouraging me to break out of my "boring" engineer-y box! :)