Hello! Father’s Day was last week, and I’d kept this one here ready for a month now! If you know me, you know that I still give flowery cards to my Papa – I’ve got no new or old definition for ‘masculine cards’; I just make and give my Papa what I know makes him and me happy. Flowers are always the thing for us! 🙂 Here’s what I made –

I used the Penny Black Flower Cluster stamp, stamped it on watercolor paper several times using MISTI, masking the image wherever needed. I used Antique Linen distress ink for stamping.
I then watercolored them using distress inks. I chose three inks for each color, waiting until one layer was dry before adding the next layer. Actually, I didn’t have to wait – coloring each of the flowers separately took sufficient time, so everything would dry by then!! 😀 Finally, I watercolored the background using Peacock Feathers distress ink.

My initial idea was to trim the watercolor panel to a standard card size, but seeing that it came out better than I expected, I decided to keep the whole thing as is. 😀 I did however trim the sides a bit, then the bottom part, which was mostly white. I then added the sentiment, using Mama Elephant Calli Letters stamp sets.
Now, I usually add some kind of embellishment at this point, but I seriously had no idea what to add to this card. Pearls, rhinestones and glitter all seemed wrong. I was lost for a day, before it hit me – embossing! I used Emboss It pen to add embossing on select areas on the flowers and leaves, and clear embossed it. I also added the clear embossing on the letters.
[It was so hard to click this image – no matter what angle I shot from, the embossing wasn’t showing at all!! It was like it was totally shy of the camera, and didn’t want to show itself in the images!! But I was able to capture it finally!! :D]

I chose a beautiful cobalt blue card base, then used the same stamp set on the card base also, clear embossing it, before foam mounting the watercolor paper panel on top.
The envelope too – used the same stamps with my MISTI, along with Memento Danube Blue ink.

I am joining these challenges with my card –
The Flower Challenge #9: Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #247: Make Your Mark

Happy Little Stampers: June Watercolor Challenge: Anything Goes, with an optional twist of masking

The Challenge #88: Keywords (I chose flowers, bright and watercolor)

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂