Favorite technique

Time for a new challenge at Impression Obsession on the theme Favorite technique.

Choosing the technique was easy, and so was making the background with the technique. The next stage however...

As per usual, once I had done the background, I didn't want to hide it because I thought it so beautiful. Eventually I decided to use the same stamp in a contrasting color as a topper for my card. I tried gilding flakes on dark blue card, which, predictably looked a mess  (detailed stamp + bonding powder is not a good combination), moved on to mica powders on dark blue, pretty, but I realised dark blue was never going to work with my background's blues !
Then lightbulb moment.... I reversed the color scheme and embossed the stamped image in white, applying watercolor on top. I had several tries with that too... and concluded that to get good results watercolor paper was an absolute necessity. To make my topper more interesting I die-cut it with a Spellbinders Accent die, added a ribbon with a rub-on greeting and some heart gems.

Now for the technique : the background is CAC Ornate (CC077) stamped in Versamark, then colored with pastels (chalks) using cotton balls. I used 3 pastel sticks in dark indigo, ultramarine blue and a vibrant violet, concentrating the dark indigo on all 4 sides of the background. I sprayed a bit of fixative to  avoid smudging.
This is the same technique as the one I used here

I encourage you to try this technique, it's foolproof and the results are so beautiful...