Watercolor By Candle Light

Wow, Tuesday - already? So, hello and happy Tuesday to you. I'm here sharing a card I've been fiddling with for almost 2 days now. It's what I'd call a High Maintenance Card. There's so much more I could keep doing to it, but I haven't felt well and I'm ready to be done with it and go on to my next assignment, a college graduation card for a nephew. For now, it's Christmas again:

This card began as a way to watercolor a Stamplorations digital stamp because that's their current challenge theme. I saw it and wanted to play. The sketch, too.

Trouble is, I wanted to print the stamp on watercolor paper and of my current paper choices, they either jammed my printer or printed out badly. I finally got a good one, I can't remember how, but I ended up wanting to use the other side of my badly printed sheet as my base mat.

And I could faintly see the images from the other side, so I got the bright idea to paint the badly printed side with black gesso. I did and it worked.

   

Then I decided to emboss a brick background, and that worked! There's the gesso'd back side. I can no longer see the printing from the other side. Magic! lol

SUPPLIES:
*Recollections card stock
*Watercolor paper
*Rhona Farrer and Magenta patterned paper
*Spellbinders Tammy Tutterow embossing folder "Picnic"
*SU and Fiskars punches
*Cuttlebug Fanciful Labels die
*Spellbinders A2 Distressed Edges die
*Stamps: Stamplorations digital stamp "Framed Christmas Candle" and clear stamps "Holiday        Artsy"; Papertrey Ink; Technique Tuesday; EK Success
*Inks/Paints: Ranger Distress, Dylusions, Yasutomo Niji Pearlescent water colors; Versamark
*White and clear embossing powders

The inside and back of my card. I got carried away with the Distress ink blending, but it's like meditation to me and I needed that today. I really like these two papers together.

A couple of close-ups:

And one parting shot of the card:

CHALLENGES:
1. Stamplorations April Theme & Sketch: Stamps and Water Coloring
2. Stamplorations Never-Ending Challenge

3. MLCCB #9: April Anything Christmas Goes
4. Colour Crazy Week 16: anything Goes with Colouring - my 2nd and final entry

Okay, I am done and can go take a nap and rest!  Not many challenges this time, that's how bad I feel. Have a great week, everyone, and thank you kindly for visiting and checking out my art. xoxoxo