Beautiful You with Blooms & Bliss

My local stamp club met yesterday – always a good time.  When I sat down to design the cards I made with them, I didn’t realize how apropos this card would be.  I wanted to showcase the Beautiful You stamp set and Stampin’ Up!’s new watercolor pencils with the group.  I didn’t know we’d have one of the most aggressive rain spells while we were there.  I’ll start by saying that the club members were THRILLED with the results of their first time working with the Stampin’ Up! Watercolor Pencils.

“I can’t believe I made this – it looks like an artist made this.”  – D. Chambers

You can’t imagine how happy that makes me – clean and simple that looks “like an artist made” it.  🙂  Here’s the card we made:

Tips, Tricks and Reminders

• Watercolor Pencils.  I had no idea how much I’d enjoy playing the Stampin’ Up!’s new Watercolor Pencils.  I don’t mind saying I was a bit intimidated at first, but there’s really nothing to be afraid of!  After using them a couple of times, I packed up my pencils and shared them with the group – and they all loved how easy they were to work with and the effects from the quick-and-easy coloring.  After the ink on the Archival Basic Black image dried, I simply rough-sketched the inside of the image outline and then pulled the colors into the image with tiny, little circles.  It’s amazing how quickly the image fills in and how beautiful it looks when you are done.  Here’s Stampin’ Up!’s video about these amazing pencils:

• Pop of Yellow.  Umbrellas are yellow (or red or black or blue), right?  This umbrella needed a pick-me-up pop of yellow, so I used the Daffodil Delight watercolor pencil to add brightness.  To balance the pop of yellow in the umbrella, I added a strip of Daffodil Delight cardstock.  To add a little interest (but not to distract from the beautiful, stamped image) I added three score lines across the band with the scoring blade of my Stampin’ Trimmer.  I played around with a couple of ways to get these score lines centered, and here’s what I came up with:
  • Along the side of a strip of cardstock, score a 1/2″.
  • Score at 5/8″.
  • Score at 3/4″.
  • Cut at 1-1/4″ from the original edge.
  • Smile at the simple texture you’ve added to your card.
• Color Combination.  The Blooms & Bliss Designer Series Paper (along with other colors) features Rich Razzleberry, so I pulled the rich purple into my image with the Rich Razzleberry Watercolor Pencil.  The umbrella made sense as a bright, cheery Daffodil Delight.  If you like this color combination, please save this:

Since I didn’t have a sentiment on the outside of the card (the combination of the image and Designer Series Paper says a handful), I added a sweet sentiment to the inside – the sentiment is also from Beautiful You.

Stamp Sets:  Beautiful You  Papers:  Blooms & Bliss Designer Series Paper, Rich Razzleberry, Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Thick Whisper White, Whisper White  Inks:  Archival Basic Black, Watercolor Pencils (Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry), Blender Pen  Accessories:  Layering Ovals Framelits Dies, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Beautiful You Clear-Mount Stamp Set – 143637

Price: $28.00

Blooms & Bliss Designer Series Paper – 141654

Price: $11.00

Watercolor Pencils – 141709

Price: $16.00

Blender Pens – 102845

Price: $10.00

Layering Ovals Framelits Dies – 141706

Price: $35.00

Supply List

Despite the rain, we had a lot of fun putting this card together in the club.  Here are some of the club members, showing off their Beautiful You cards:

Thanks for stopping by today!

Brian

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