Manhattan Flower embossing with watercolour technique

Using Stampin' Up pads Regal Rose and Baja Breeze

Just thought I would show you what I have been doing this afternoon!  I made 4 of these but this was probably the best example.  Whilst browsing the web recently I saw this technique (could have been on Splitcoast Stampers?) and wanted to have a go.  The Manhattan Flower embossing folder from Stampin' Up is one of my favourites anyway and it seemed like a different way to use it.

You need watercolour paper* cut to fit in the embossing folder (I actually left it a little longer so that I had some to hold whilst embossing) and then you run it through your machine (mine's a Cuttlebug) - the instructions said to run it through several times which I did.  Then use some temporary adhesive to stick the paper to your work surface to hold it still for the next stage.  Use a brayer and Versamark to ink the raised portions of the image and then sprinkle with clear embossing powder.  Remove any stray powder you can see with a small brush and then heat emboss.  (I found the embossing easier said than done although that could be that the light in the hall at Craft Club was not too good making it difficult to see where it had embossed - I'll have to try it again at home!  I think also that the watercolour paper soaks up the Versamark a bit so, even if you get the embossing powder on quickly, it doesn't seem to 'take' properly on all the raised areas.  It's worth trying to emboss twice perhaps?)

Anyway, next wet the paper and use watercolours, dye ink pads, etc, to add colour to the roses.  I used the ink pads by pressing the closed lid which gets a small amount of ink on the inside which you can paint with.  If the raised areas have all embossed OK you could just paint over the whole flower in one go but I did each petal individually, using more ink in the centre, and fading out by adding more water to the outer sections.  The instructions said to wet the paper again by misting to blend the colours but this didn't seem to make much difference! - but it did allow me to drop some colour into the background.

I was fairly pleased with the finished result although I would have been happier if I could have got the embossing to work all over.  Will probably have another go at some time, trying different colours - it might be worth experimenting with watercolour pencils.

*I used two different types of watercolour paper - a cheap one from The Works and a more expensive artists' one.  Overall I think the cheaper one gave the best results and is the one in the photo above.

Enjoy your Easter weekend!

Judy x