Courage, I Believe in You with Miriam

Hi everyone!  I've got a card to share with you guys today using the Wonky Chevron cover plate and Have Courage stamp set. 

I love how bold the Wonky Chevron cover can be, but wanted to do something very soft and pretty with it.  However, when I was looking through my papers, I couldn't find soft enough colors (this is shocking because I have so.many.papers).  

My solution was to create them for myself.  I cut several panels of watercolor paper and then using Kuretake Gansai watercolors in a light blue, and yellow gold (from the Starry Colors set), added a very light, soft wash to them.  Once they were dry, I die cut the cover plate from them as well as a plain piece of watercolor paper.

I used the soft gold for the outline/webbing, and then inlaid blue and plain pieces within the cover.  The cover plate is just a smidge smaller than A2 which I like sometimes because you get a really nice fine mat when you mount it to a card base, but for this card I wanted just the cover to show, so I trimmed the card base down accordingly.

The gingko branch from the Have Courage set was stamped and clear embossed on watercolor paper, and then I colored it using a Distress Marker (Forest Moss) and water brush.  I added just a bit of color to the leaves with the brush side of the marker, and then softened and spread the pigment out using the waterbrush.  

I also added a very light light wash of color around the branches/stems so that the clear embossing would stand out a little better.  Once the piece was dry, I die cut it and popped it up over my cover plate with some foam adhesive.  The foam adhesive was added only towards the center of the piece because I like the movement you get from the leaves when they aren't fully adhered.  They curl up a bit and it looks more natural.

The sentiment is also from the Have Courage set.  The large sentiment was stamped in Versafine on watercolor paper and clear embossed (mostly so I wouldn't accidentally smudge it), and then I fussy cut it.  The secondary sentiment is stamped on a banner from the Skinny Strips die set which I die cut from a scrap of watercolor paper that I had colored/painted using that same distress marker and water brush.

I used two layers of the foam adhesive on the courage sentiment for some extra dimension.

Incidentally, the Have Courage set is part of the March Madness sale going on now through Saturday in the store.  Everything in the March Madness category is 30% off with code MARCHMADNESS!

Thanks for visiting, hope your week is going well!