Embossing and Watercolors

Sometimes I need a little bit of a nudge to get out of my creative zone.  Paints, watercolors, embossing and stamps aren't necessarily my "go-to" items when I'm creating, but whenever I do pick them, I fall head over heels for them (again)!  There is just something so magical about painting and watercolors.  I'm definitely a novice when it comes to watercolors, but I actually kind of like NOT knowing how a page is going to turn out until it's finished.  That's just so different than my normal creative routine.

For this fun page, I used the Little Things stamp from Studio Calico and a few little odds and ends from the Flying Trapeze add-on.  The best thing about this stamp is it's size!  I love large stamps and how they are so dramatic on a background!!

I started by embossing the floral stamp using opaque embossing powder on my page.  I had the idea of maybe having the watercolors/embossing on one side with a photo to the right of it, so I embossed the flowers a little to left of center.  Then, I grabbed out my watercolors, picked a few colors that seemed to coordinate well with some background papers and then painted around the embossed flowers.  As you can see in the photo above, I also added in a few paint splatters here and there.  I love the messy look of watercolors!

I layered my photo to the right of the watercolors, but made sure you could still see those beautiful embossed flowers!

I kept my embellishments pretty simple and scattered a few hearts and stars around the page.  The Dear Lizzy gold foil word stickers were a no-brainer when it came to a title.  The pop of gold was exactly what the white background needed. 

To add a little more depth and contrast to the white background, I adhered a medium sized butterfly by my photo and lifted the flaps for some dimension.  The bold color definitely helps the photo pop from the page!

I just love the effect of embossing and watercolors!  Have you ever tried out this technique??