I believe in YOU!

 I'm back today to share another design that my daughter and I worked on for the set we are making for her Hope Squad. I wasn't planning on sharing it today but I found out that this stamp set is $10 off, which is an amazing price! 
 We've decided to keep the card set cohesive so there will be a lot of similar elements and colors. I shared the first card the other day which you can see HERE. There is something so magical about these Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi paints that is so addictive.  I had an idea in my mind that I couldn't wait to execute and it required A LOT of watercolored hearts. I die cut 56 hearts out of 140 lb cold pressed watercolor paper while my daughter watercolored each one. Once I was done, I joined in on the fun!

 In the end, my fabulous idea I had in my mind didn't translate so well on paper so I have a ton of hearts to use on some other projects which will be nice to keep the cohesive feel. Each heart is stacked 4 times and glued together. We worked hard to get the tops of each heart to have some interesting variations and shading. The background is watercolored in a rainbow pattern and this time I made sure that it included purple. My daughter worked hard to make purple for the hearts so we needed to make sure the card front had it as well. These paints blend beautifully! The crazy part is that the finished piece looks and feels like shimmer paper....smooth and shiny, but it is actually thick watercolor paper! With the Pearl paints and the embossing, it completely transforms the texture! 

 I absolutely LOVED the effect that the last card had using the deeply etched embossing folder. I chose a cuttlebug embossing folder that actually "debosses" rather than "embosses". We chose this particular design because the flowers are made up of heart images, which is perfect for this design.

The sentiment, which is from the Hero Arts "You are Loved" stamp set, was stamped in Versamark ink and heat embossed with white detail powder. This particular set was designed to give others encouragement and part of the profits will be donated to the "anti-bullying" campaign which is what my daugther's group the "Hope Squad" works on as well as suicide prevention, etc.

 I die cut a circle near the top and then adhered the entire watercolored piece to an A2 card base. The sentiment is placed over the circle and adhered using foam squares. I originally stamped the sentiment in black ink onto white paper, which I liked, but in the end it felt too washed out so I switched to black. 

 Once that was done, it was time to place the hearts scattered across the front. It was fun matching up the hearts to the perfect spot on the card front. And, because they look so darn cute, we just HAD to add some rainbow sparkle jewels. They are addictive as well. I added them in the same way I have in the past, placing them onto the card nearest the color that they match. I love the iridescent quality that they have in combination with the pearl paint; a match made in heaven!

 I felt quite pleased with the results, but wanted to give the hearts a little something extra. I tried this on one of the extra hearts first, to see if I liked it, and in the end I LOVED it! I added some Glossy Accents like I did to the hearts on THIS card, but restrained myself on THIS card because I wanted the beautiful watercoloring to be the focus! NO!!! Let me tell you...the glossy accents MAGNIFIES the watercolors, the pearl quality...it is JUST GORGEOUS! I tried to take a closeup of it here for you to see, but in real life it is amazing!!!!!I'm thinking of adding it to the last card because it is just so beautiful!

I made sure not to neglect the inside of the card and I'm just having too much fun with the Shrinky Dinks still. Also, they will give the whole set and extra dimension of cohesion. I stacked some hearts that were punched out about 4-5 times and then glued the sentiment using Tombow Mono Multi to the heart. I like this particular glue because it comes out white so that you can see where it is, but it dries perfectly clear. I also added a sprinkling of rainbow jewels for sparkle and continuity. Thanks for fluttering by!