Watercolor on Gesso?

Watercolor and Gelato in 6 x 6 Junk Journal

Roz Stendahl does fabulous drawings in beautiful handmade books.  She also does exhaustive experiments and reviews of all kinds of papers and media.  One of her recommendations for mediocre paper is to apply a layer of gesso.  She will use this even for watercolor, so I thought I would try it.  (I'm finding that I'm attracted to a square format book lately, and the only one I have is this 6 x 6 journal made from scrapbook paper.)

I can't say that I'm convinced.  It dried OK, but the watercolor was very slippery going on.  The background of gelatos was very fun, though - fingerpainting!

Crafty Experiments and Using Up My Stash

Like most stampers, I have a stash of embossing powder, which is used for heat embossing.  I don't do as much stamping as I used to and I rarely emboss, but things seem more sparkly at Christmas, don't they?  Crafters too share the desire to bring light into this dark time of year.

This crafty experiment combines brush lettering with heat embossing.  First, I wrote "heart" with a Pentel waterbrush dipped in glycerine, and then I sprinkled on the embossing powder.  The heat was provided by a heat gun.