Emboss resist is such a fun technique to use with your inks. However, it’s just as great to use with your watercolours. In today’s video, I’ve got three ways to combine emboss resist with watercolours. Whether you’ve got liquid watercolours, powders or watercolour pans there’s a technique to suit you all.
PRODUCED AS PART OF MY DESIGN-TEAM WORK FOR WOW! Embossing powder - SEE END OF POST FOR MORE DETAILS
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This technique uses liquid watercolours to create an embossed resist background. To start off, heat emboss the Love Note background stamp from Catherine pooler designs in clear ultra slow drying embossing ink and then cover in WOW! Metallic gold-rich pale embossing powder. Make sure you heat emboss this onto watercolour cardstock.

Once heat-set you’re ready to add colour to this panel. Start off by brushing clear clean wash over the background of the panel with a flat brush. Next, use some liquid watercolours and use the pipette to drop out Aquamarine PinkFresh Studio Liquid watercolour into one corner of the panel. As the panel is already wet the colour will start to move, but to allow it to move a little bit more spray with clean clear water in a spritz bottle. This just helps the colour to move around a bit more.
The same process was also used for the two additional colours: Sapphire and Lavendar. Now if you’re impatient, you can use your dual speed heat gun to dry your card stock without ruining your heat embossing by using setting 1.
To turn this into a card, a circle was die cut out of the background and foam mounted onto a white card base. A sentiment from the Kudos To You stamp set from Catherine Pooler was heat embossed and fussy cut out to add to the card panel. A few die-cuts using the Winter Haven Die set from Catherine Pooler designs were die-cut out of white card to create a little house scene.

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For the second technique, we’re going to use traditional watercolours in their watercolour pan form. Before adding the watercolours, first heat emboss the Painted Stripe background from Catherine Pooler Designs. After stamping this in clear ultra slow drying bossing ink, cover WOW! Metallic Copper embossing powder.

The watercolour pan set used for this card is the 36 watercolour pan set from Altenew. Again, add some clear clean water to the background panel first and then add Lagoon to the top of the panel. Apply this with a flat brush to get a nice smooth coverage of the colour. Next, go in with Persian blue blending this up into the lagoon. The last colour to add to this background is Midnight Violet and this transitions really well from the Persian blue into this lovely purple when blended together. As I wanted to intensify the colours on the card stock, and as it’s natural for watercolours to dry back slightly more muted in colour, I went back in and added a second layer of the same watercolours.
To create the card, die cut a semi-circle out of this panel and foam mount this offset to one side of a white card panel. Next. layer up a Hello die from Catherine Pooler Designs out of black card stocks at 3 times for dimension. Add a stamped sentiment from the One-liner sentiment stamp set from Catherine pooler Designs stamping this in Blackjack Catharine Pooler Ink.

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The last technique used watercolour powders and the powders I’m using our Brusho’s, however you can use any watercolour powders that you have to hand. This background uses the large Mandela background called Sandy background from Catherine Pooler Designs. This was stamped in my clear ultra slow drying embossing ink and covered with WOW! Metallic platinum embossing powder.
To use the Brushos apply the Brusho powder onto a dry surface. You will find what colour powders go quite a long way and you do not need a lot. I have a pin in the top of each of my Brusho lids, this creates a little hole allowing me to tap out the powder and having some control over how much comes out. The colour of powders used in this card was Turquoise, Purple and Ultramarine powder.

After you have added enough powder, use a water spritz bottle to spritz with water over the pigment powder. The water activates those small powder particles and you get such vibrant colours. The more water you add, the more diluted the colour becomes, however it also blends the colours as well. It all depends on what kind of look you’re going for. I find as the colours blend I kind of get this more tie-dye look. Any excess colour you can mop up again with a piece of tissue and if you want to dry it in between powders you can also do that to.
The Mandela was fussy cutout and foam mounted onto a white card base in one corner. For the sentiment, die-cut the Thanks die from Catherine Pooler Designs out of soft stone card stock from Gina K, layering this up three times to create dimension. Add another One-liner sentiment to the front of the card to finish it off.










Supplies
three ways to emboss resist with watercolours
Affiliate links used at no extra cost to you at these shops: Altenew (ALT), Catherine Pooler Designs (CPD) Scrapbook.com (SB), Hero Arts (HA), Picket Fence Studios (PF), My Favourite Things (MFT), and Craft Stash UK/US (CS UK/US).
To get £1 off your order at The Little Paper Tree (LPT), use the code TLPTVERITY at the checkout.
All other shops are not affiliated links: Bumbleberry Papercrafts (BP) and WOW! UK/US (WOW UK/US).
![]() Love Note Backgroud – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: CPD | SB | Sand Background – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: CPD | SB | One Liner Sentiments – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: CPD | SB | LPT |
Painted stripe background – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: CPD | SB | LPT | Kudos To You – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: CPD | LPT | Hello die – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: CPD |
Thanks die – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: CPD | Winterhaven dis – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: SB | ![]() Nesting Circle Infinity Dies – Hero Arts Shop at: SB | HA | BP |
![]() Black Jack Ink – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: CPD | SB | LPT | ![]() Black Jack reinker – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: CPD | SB | LPT | ![]() Black Jack Bundle – Catherine Pooler Designs Shop at: CPD | LPT |
![]() WOW! Clear ultra slow drying embossing ink pad Shop at: CPD | CS (UK) | CS (US) | WOW (UK) | WOW (US) | ![]() WOW! Clear ultra slow drying embossing ink refill Shop at: CS (UK) | CS (US) | WOW (UK) | WOW (US) | ![]() Opaque Bright White -WOW! Embossing Powder Shop at: CS (UK) | CS (US) | WOW (UK) | WOW (US) |
![]() Metallic Gold Rich Pale – WOW! Embossing Powder Shop at: CS (UK) | CS (US) | WOW (UK) | WOW (US) | ![]() Metallic Copper – WOW! Embossing Powder Shop at: WOW (UK) | WOW (US) | ![]() Metallic Platinum – WOW! Embossing Powder Shop at: CPD | CS (UK) | WOW (UK) | WOW (US) |
![]() Aquamarine Watercolour – Pink Fresh Studios Shop at: SB | BP | ![]() Sapphire – PinkFresh Studios Shop at: SB | BP | Lavendar – PinkFresh Studios Shop at: SB | BP |
![]() White Gloss Crystal Nuvo Drops – Tonic Studios Shop at: SB | CS (UK) | ![]() Soft Stone Heavy Weight Cardstock – Gina K Designs Shop at: BP | ![]() Original MISTI – My Sweet Petunia Shop at: ALT | CPD | SB | HA | BP |
![]() Gina K Designs – Connect Glue Shop at: BP | ![]() Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares 1/4″ white Shop at: CPD | SB | BP | ![]() WOW! Dual Speed Heat Gun (UK version) Shop at: CS (UK) | WOW (UK) |
![]() WOW! Dual Speed Heat Gun (US version) Shop at: CPD | WOW (US) | ![]() Teflon Bone Folder – Lawn Fawn Shop at: BP | ![]() Tim Holtz 8.5 Inches Comfort Trimmer – Tonic Studios Shop at: SB | CS (UK) | CS (US) |
![]() Trim and Score Board – We R Memory Keepers Shop at: SB | CS (UK) | CS (US) |
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DISCLOSURE
This post was produced as part of my design team work for WOW! Embossing Powders have not been paid to make this post, but I am given supplies from WOW! Embossing Powder to use. However, I create projects with creative control and produce projects I am proud of and with products that I love. The information provided is based on my own personal experience – I am not an expert.