You’re The Best | CAS Card

I have an awful cold. Possibly a chest and/or sinus infection. Certainly feels like it. As a result I spent the majority of the day mindlessly scrolling and looking at cards on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Until I suddenly remembered that the MFT Sketch Challenge is ending soon and I wanted to play along with it. I’d had an idea already, but I thought it would take too much time. So I decided I’d do something quicker. Ha. Does that flower look like it was quick? It was not. But it’s done, and that’s the main thing!

First I stamped one of the flowers from Plentiful Petals, which is retired but there are some other great MFT florals to consider. I stamped it with Altenew’s Soft Lilac ink onto a purple card base. I intentionally chose a pale purple as I wanted the ink to disappear for a no-line colouring look. It actually turned out to be a bit darker than I’d intended, but it did all get covered anyway so it did work out.

For the colouring I used my Spectrum Noir Illustrator markers. First I mapped out all of the petals with the lightest of my chosen shades, PP2. I then proceeded to work from darkest to lightest which is my usual way of colouring. I did one petal to start with, first putting DR3 just at the base of the petal, the MG3 at the base and tip, and finally MG1. On the first petal I finished off with more of the PP2 but on the subsequent petals I left that off and just didn’t fill in the whole petal, which I felt worked better. I used flicking motions with each colour, and after the first petal I worked a few at a time to speed the process up.

Next I coloured the centre of the flower. I laid in the shadow area of the centre with IG2, then edged the darkest shadow area with IG10 before stippling in with the IG10, IG8, IG6 and IG2. I concentrated the darkest stipples to the shadow area with just a few in the light areas, and did the opposite with the lightest stipples. I wasn’t entirely happy with how it looked so I went over the entire area colouring in my usual way to add a flat base layer of colour, again from darkest to lightest, then repeated the process of the stippling for texture.

Once I was done with the alcohol marker colouring I bought in a white gel pen to add extra detail to the flower. I then also bought in coloured pencils to deepen the colour in some areas, as well as to add a hint of cast shadow below the flower.

Returning to the white gel pen I created a randomly wavy dotty line bisecting the card at an angle, inspired by the sketch. I intentionally tried to keep it from being uniform, though in hindsight I may have liked it more if it was. Oh well.

The floral stamp set I used doesn’t have any sentiments. After looking through my (rather meagre) collection of MFT stamps I found a sentiment in Best Friends in the Universe that reads “You’re the Best Friend in the Universe”. I positioned it on my card, masked it so that it would only stamp the words I wanted, and inked up in white pigment ink. I used my MISTI which allowed me to double stamp it to brighten it up.

Okay. That’s the card. I cannot breathe through my nose. I am going to link this up to challenges, share on social media, and go to bed. Hopefully the sinus pain and cough will let up enough for me to actually sleep tonight… Can you tell I’m feeling sorry for myself? Don’t worry, I can’t be ill forever!

Love,

Charlotte E (Lady Joyful) Email thejoyfulsoulcreates@gmail.com

*Affiliate links may have been used in this post. For more details on affiliate links as well as other ways to support me, visit this page.*

Challenges:

Crafty Catz – Anything Goes and Optional: CAS With A Sentiment

Digi Choosday – Anything Goes

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

MFT Sketch Challenge – Sketch

Polkadoodles Craft Challenge – Anything Goes

The Flower Challenge – Add Spots or Stripes