This month at Sparkle N Sprinkle, the designers are combining SNS products with chipboard from Want 2 Scrap. For today's card, I used the painting with embossing powder technique on both the bird and the background. This post is photo heavy with step by steps of how the chipboard was painted.
To start off, I usually add White embossing powder to the naked chipboard. If you are using brighter colors, this allows the truer color to show; otherwise it is a darker shade because of the brown base.
The background for my bird is the Fleur de Lis Nestaboard and I chose three different colors of blue to create the sky: Bracing Blue, By the Lake, and Sky Blue Spark. I used the Stampendous Boss Gloss Embossing Ink on top of the heat set White embossed background. If you look closely (you can click on the image to enlarge it), this embossing ink doesn't go on smoothly on top of an already heat embossed area like VersaMark does; it creates little puddles of ink. For this background, I was fine with these dots (or puddled areas) as it reminded me of white clouds peeking through. If you don't want the dots (or puddles), then you should use a different embossing ink. (Note: If it's the first coat of embossing ink, this works just like any other brand of embossing ink and it's super easy to apply with the dauber top.)
Now it's time to start painting the chipboard bird. This is actually a large piece with multiple birds called Birds of a Feather, but I cut off the one I wanted. I started out by adding color to the branch he was sitting on using Coffee embossing powder. 
Next came the leaves with Emerald embossing powder used for the base. I used the VersaMarker to draw in the veins before adding Forest Green embossing powder.
For the bird, Concord was used for his body and feet, Red Apple for his head and wings, and Platinum for his beak. I heat set each color before adding the next color. Then I added a few details using a permanent fine tip marker.
The card base was die cut using a Sue Wilson Designs die (Noble die-Double Pierced Rectangle, Set B). The center portion was then dry embossed using a Sue Wilson Designs embossing folder (Rambling Blossoms) and then I did a faux letterpress technique (from Sue Wilson) on top of the dry embossing.
The thin frame, which gets cut when you use several of the dies from this set together, was pop dotted with dimensional tape and the center dry embossed, faux letterpressed paned was recessed. The sentiment is also a die cut and is from Lawn Fawn (Thinking About You Border die).
Hope you enjoyed the process and it inspires you to try this technique too.
