Watercolor Lilly

It's good to revisit old techniques. I often get caught up in what's trendy and new and forget about old favorites.  Watercoloring with heat embossing is something I've done off and on throughout my decades of card making.  

I stamped this image in VersaFine black ink, onto watercolor paper and added clear embossing powder over top.  I've found using black ink and clear embossing powder will get you the best black embossing.  Black embossing powder is much fussier and less reliable.  

The heat embossing technique creates a nearly foolproof way to watercolor an image.  The heat embossing creates a resist that builds wells for color to settle into.  For these lilies, I was able to paint all the petals without waiting for areas to dry because the embossing kept the petals from bleeding into each other.  

I stamped my sentiment from a combination of Simon Says Stamp and Avery Elle stamp sets.  To complete the card, I trimmed the panel enough to create a thin black border when mounted onto the black card base.  The panel was adhered with tear tape because of the thickness of the watercolor paper.