Thankful Flowers – CIC 432 – The Joyful Soul Creates

When I sat down to make this card I was thinking “I’ll just do something quick.” Well, funnily enough… that’s not what happened. I didn’t have a plan in mind beyond a “thanks” theme, for the latest Cupcake Inspiration Challenge, and quickly came up with the idea of using a background stamp in combination with a scripty sentiment for a simple but quick card. Two hours later I had created a one layer card with a lot of no-line colouring. Luckily I had so much fun with the process that I didn’t realise it had taken so long!

I started by stamping the Simon Says Stamp Mod Flower background stamp directly onto my card base using Simon Says Stamp Barely Beige ink. I used my MISTI to do the stamping, and tacked down the back flap of the cardbase with washi tape to keep it from shifting.

Once I was happy with the stamping I started on colouring. I primarily used Spectrum Noir Illustrator Markers for my colouring, but did also use some Yosoo markers when I didn’t have SNs in the colours I wanted to use.

First I coloured all the leaves. I used a flicking technique, starting with the darkest shade at either end and working through to the lightest colour in the centre. I used YG2 Olive Green for my dark, LG3 Meadow for my mid-tone, and LG1 as my lightest shade. For the green circles (which were actually the last things I coloured) I used DG2 Bamboo for my darkest shade but kept both the LGs. The circles were coloured with the shadow on the left hand side.

I decided to go orange for my large flowers as I wanted an autumnal colour scheme. As with the leaves, I applied the darkest shade to either end of the petals, working to lighter in the middle. This gave the petals a curled look. I used BO2 Mango for the darkest areas,GY2 Mimosa for the mid-tone, and FS7 Linen for the lightest shade. I later used the same three colours for the centres of my smaller flowers.

It did take me a little while to decided what colour to do the smaller flowers. It seemed boring to do them the same orange as the large flowers. Husband suggested blue but all the blue markers I have are too intense for the look I was going for. After much deliberation I decided to pull in my Yosoo markers and make the flowers yellow. I used the same colouring technique as on the large flowers, with Y5 Deep Yellow for my darkest shade, Y3 Mid Yellow for the mid-tone, and Y225 Acid Yellow as the lightest. To help tie the flowers together I used the same colours for the centres of the larger flowers, with the addition of YG7 Dark Goldenrod to add a bit more depth to the shading.

With the colouring all completed the only thing I had left to do was adding the sentiment. I used *Pink and Main‘s Thanks To You stamp set with MFT Black Licorice Ink and stamped it directly over my coloured background. I used my MISTI again because I really didn’t want to mess up after spending so much time on it!

I’m really pleased with this card. It may have taken much (much) longer than I had anticipated, but it turned out so pretty! I love the way all the colours go together. It has a lovely soft autumnal look to it. I’m happy with how my colouring went, even if there are some mistakes with the blending. I’m still learning, and I’m aware that I see the errors in it more than others may. In any case I was able to disguise the worst area with the sentiment! Given the time it took I certainly wouldn’t be mass producing this card, but I enjoyed the process anyway.

Love,

Lady Joyful

* This is a reward link. If you follow the link and order from Pink and Main, I will receive reward points towards a future transaction for referring you. This is at no extra cost to you, but makes it easier for me to continue getting products and bringing you fun projects like this. Thanks for your support!

Challenges included:

Crafty Gals Corner – Thankful

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge – Thankful