52 Christmas Card Throwdown - September color challenge

Hello!  This week is color challenge week at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, and our challenge this time allows for our challenge participants to do some choosing on their own.  We’d like to see your cards using the colors red and white plus any other color except green.

My card was pretty easy to make, but sadly, it turned out to be one unfortunate event after another.  I almost trashed it but then I decided to just go with it anyway.  I’m only human, and all of my cards aren’t going to turn out perfectly.  Life just doesn’t work that way.

To start out, I chose gold as my optional color.  I thought I’d heat emboss this ornament image and then watercolor it, with the embossing providing resist against the watercolor.  So I stamped the image with my gold pigment ink on my whitest watercolor paper, sprinkled it with detail embossing powder, heated it – and it seemed like the powder never melted the way it normally does.  I’d just used the embossing powder earlier in the day on regular cardstock and didn’t have any issues with it.  So maybe it’s something with the watercolor paper?  I don’t know.  Then I had some problems controlling the ink I was watercoloring with – partly because I’m still a beginner at watercoloring, and partly because the embossing powder wasn’t resisting the ink like I had thought it would do.  But I forged on and I guess it doesn’t look too awful.  I waffled back and forth between using brushed gold or shiny gold cardstock for the mat, and finally chose the brushed gold because it seemed to be the better match with the gold image.

What color will you use with red and white?  Remember, you can’t use green!  If you need additional ideas, go see what the rest of the 52CCT design team has made.  Then link your card to the challenge post by 7:00 p.m. Eastern time Friday, September 18.  We’d love to have you join us!

Supplies:
Stamp: Christmas Blueprint 2 (Tim Holtz)
Cardstock: Real Red, Brushed Gold (Stampin’ Up); Artistico Extra White Hot Pressed (Fabriano)
Ink: Gold (ColorBox)
Other: Real Red reinker, detail gold embossing powder (SU)