Today I’m starting a series of posts about how I often work when creating a card. If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time you know I’m not shy about CASE’ing cards from other artists (CASE = Copy And Share Everything), but I do also create my own designs.
Have you taken a good look at the Petal Passion Designer Series Paper on p. 23 of the Occasions Catalog?
These striking black-and-white designs are great as-is, but they also provide opportunities to color with different techniques. Here are two pieces I chose to color:
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The floral design I colored using the new Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. If you feel like you’re still failing Coloring for Kindergartners I highly recommend you try these markers! Different effects I love to be able to get from these include
- coloring the background I was able to get a smooth application of color without worrying about overlap marks like with water-based markers
- layering multiple colors for the desired effect. The large yellow and orange flower has Daffodil Delight – Light as a base, some strokes of Pumpkin Pie – Light for added color, then I used Daffodil Delight – Dark to blend everything together. The purple flower is Rich Razzleberry -Light with streaks of the Rich Razzleberry – Dark in the center of the petals. The Calypso Coral Rose uses a base of Calypso Coral – Light over the entire flower, then a second coat over the middle petals and Calypso Coral – Dark over the outer petals. Pink flowers are Pink Pirouette – Light all over, then a streak of Pink Pirouette Dark on each petal and blended with Light. Centers are highlighted with Smoky Slate – Light.
For the more modern, graphic piece I decided to do a rainbow ombré using sponges. I started in the middle with Daffodil Delight, then worked my way out on each side with Pumpkin Pie and Real Red on the left, and Garden Green, Marina Mist and Elegant Eggplant on the right. I simply dabbed my sponges on the ink pads and rubbed them in circles on the DSP until I obtained the intensity of color I wanted.
Here’s how I use our Stampin’ Sponges. I cut each round sponge into 6 wedges and punch a tag of cardstock in the same color as the ink I want to use with that piece of sponge. Then fold that over the skinny end of the wedge and secure with a staple. I do write the ink color on the cardstock since sometimes it gets confusing.
I used to just wash out the sponge wedges after using them and didn’t have a separate one for each color. This works really well…I am fortunate enough to have space to store all the wedges and find it easier. Some colors will stain the sponges but as long as no color is coming out when you’ve finished rinsing it won’t transfer the next time you use one.
Check out future posts to see what I created with each of these colored papers!
