Retiring Showcase - Magnolia Mother's Day Card

I've been crafting cards for so many years now that it is a challenge to come up with something "new" each year for my mom. I know she will love anything I make for her, but it is an added challenge to try something that is not the norm for me.

I came across a retiring embossing folder that I have not used ... yet. I do like to make sure I use all of the products I buy at least once, so I have a couple of stamp sets sitting right here ready to use, but this particular embossing folder was accidently put away with the rest of my embossing folders. 

This is going to be perfect for her! This embossing folder is a focal image, not a "background" repeating pattern. I cannot think of a time where I've used an embossing folder that has a focal image. I also very, very rarely color with stamping inks using an aquapainter. I love my Blends so much that they are used all the time. For this particular technique I wanted very, very light watercolor lines, just a hint of color.

I typically use watercolor paper for watercoloring, but in this case I wanted to emboss the cardstock first. Watercolor paper is so thick it doesn't emboss very well and I don't like how easily you can ruin whisper white cardstock with water. I dug around in my stash for some shimmer white cardstock. It embosses well, and it handled the water perfectly. However I knew better than to add more than a couple of washes. However, what was the first thing I did? put on too much color...oops! 

I ended up cutting off the smaller flower which was where I'd started too dark. 

I am very happy with how it turned out!