Giveaways + Blog Hop + Anything Goes Challenge--Watercolor Snowflakes Card Tutorial

Blog Hop + Tuesday Alchemy Anything Goes Challenge

Today's a very exciting day as I am doing many, many firsts in the blog world--blog hop, giveaway, and a picture tutorial. I hope to be doing more of these things in the future! Anyway...there's a lot to cover in this post, so let's get started!

Tuesday Alchemy and it's team would like to invite you to join in on the fun this week! You may choose to do just the weekly challenge, just the blog hop, or both! You will have the opportunity to win a prize either way! It's that great! :)

Before we get to the fun part, I want to make sure you understand what we're looking for in choosing our prize winners at the end (blog hop and challenge run together and will end together).

Rules

This week the Tuesday Alchemy challenge blog is hosting a Tip &; Tutorials Blog Hop with design team members as well as the regular weekly challenge. In order to qualify for the regular weekly challenge prizes there are 4 things you must do:

• Participate in the "Anything Goes" challenge as many times as you'd like.
• Share this project on your blog AND include a link back to Tuesday Alchemy.
• Post a direct link to your project on your blog (NOT your general blog) using Inlinkz.
• Create a new project. No back links. *If you offer a tip or tutorial in your blog post, please add TIP next to your name in your entry, so you get an EXTRA entry into prizes!

To participate in the blog hop:

• Comment on all of the participating DT's blogs (you can find a list of blog hop members at the end of this post)
• Be a follower of Tuesday Alchemy &; the DT's blogs *if you're already a follower of everyone's blog, fantastic! All you need to do is comment then! :)*

About the Prizes

There are many chances to win this week!!! You can choose to participate only in the weekly challenge, blog hop, or BOTH!


This week's challenge prize *if you only enter a project and don't join the blog hop*:
Tuesday Alchemy's sponsor 
- 1 Digital Paper Pack - Karen's Scraps And Graphics

Blog Hop prizes 
Tuesday Alchemy has two sponsors: 

-A Creative Need (prize: 3 digi stamps); 
-Stitchy Bear Stamps (prize: $10 store voucher)


The winner of the challenge will be announced by Friday, June 22th and win BOTH prizes. 

My blog prize: 

• A copy of I Spy DIY Style: Find Fashion You Love and Do It Yourself by Jenni Radosevich 
• 2 greeting cards: one letterpressed by Reich Paper, one textured by Astro Converters
• 5 humorous postcards, all letterpressed by Gilah Press + Design
• 3 of my handmade chipboard butterfly tags

All packed and ready to go!

Total estimated prize value for my blog: US$45.00!

Winner of my blog's giveaway will be announced on Tuesday, June 19th's blog post. :)


Teammate Prizes:

$10 Gift Certificate - Corrinne

Stamps, Rub-Ons, Doiles, Butterflies, Flowers &; Surprises - Laine

Felt Sheets, Cards, Tags, White Pen, Stickers, Embellishments - Kelli

5 Cards, Prima Flowers, Plaster Hearts, Lace &; Tickets - Maria
Emboss sheets of cardstock, Die Cuts, Outline stickers Katya

Please check individual blogs for more information!

Tutorial

This week I want to show you how to make this card for Tuesday Alchemy's challenge. This is a crash course combining watercolor paint and wet embossing. :) I know, I know...it's weird that I'm in the winter holiday spirit in June, but I know that I will procrastinate 'til the end if I don't take advantage of the little spark of motivation here and there.

Gather these materials to begin. You can use the discount kids watercolor paint set as I did. If you use another type of ink for wet embossing that is fine too. I would recommend using either watercolor paper or heavy cardstock (I used French Paper Company's Pop-Tone Whip Cream 100 lb. cover stock) for this project as it will be absorbing a lot of liquid and will cause less stress and distortion to the final card. 

The first step is to center the 3x3 inch scrap paper as best you can on the top part of your card and tape a border around the scrap paper. Don't push down too hard on the scotch tape otherwise it will make it hard to remove later. Scotch tape is a light adhesive, so you can still remove it if only light pressure is applied. Then remove the scrap paper when you have all of the tape down around the perimeter. 

Paint inside of this box any way you like! I used the 2 blues and added some white to a few areas! This will be your background. Then let it dry for a bit. Remember to clean you brush with water every once in a while, so the colors don't bleed and mix too much if you're using other colors. 

Peel off the fence of tape gently.

This is what it looks like when the parts underneath the tape are exposed--clean edges!

Now you're ready to stamp when the background is dry. Rub your dryer sheet (or embossing buddy found in craft stores) to remove as much static as possible from the part of card where you will stamp--the blue painted background. This will help the embossing powder come off easier from the parts where it is not wanted. Stick acrylic stamps (I used BoBunny snowflakes stamps) of your choice on an acrylic block and apply Versamark Ink. I used the Dazzle version but it is not necessary here because I am not using clear embossing powder, so it won't show through.

Position stamp around the center of the background and push down with even pressure to stamp (make sure your surface is flat underneath before!!!). 

Apply embossing powder to area where you just stamped (mix a little glitter to a small batch if you want glitter in it!). You may want to consider buying the detailed embossing powder (or super fine) if you are stamping images that have many details and thin lines. Sorry for the poor quality picture. My boyfriend helped me take pictures and we didn't realize it was not in focus until I uploaded it to my computer. 

This is what the card looks like after I poured off the white embossing powder.

Tap off excess. Wipe some parts carefully if necessary.

Stamp sentiment. This is a little "season's greetings" stamp from Inkadinkado. 

Turn on heat gun and run over the powder gliding back and forth so as to not burn the paper. You'll know the embossing powder is melted as you see it's transformation from grainy to glossy! You can touch it as soon as you bring it away from the heat! It will feel raised and full of texture! With this last step I want to congratulate you because you're done! :)


Tip: Run the card through the Cuttlebug or any other cold press die cutting machine to flatten out any unflattering bends.

Where to Go From Here

Continue on! Leave comments, learn something new/refresh your memory of techniques, follow new friends, play along in this week's challenge! There is much more to be explored!

Eileen - You Are Here

Corrinne - Your Next Stop

Maria

Laine

Kelli

Katya

Tuesday Alchemy

Happy crafting and exploring!

P.S. If you have an online shop you'd like to promote on my page, you can add your link under my "Link Up" tab. :)


This card was also entered in:
-Craft Your Passion Challenges 114 Anything Goes
-Make It Monday 93 Anything Goes
-CRAFT Challenge 158, Male Card