I love to color and I purchased the new Apple Harvest stamp set with coloring in mind. The only problem.... color how? I thought about watercolor first, it's my favorite without a doubt, but I wanted a card I could do at Card Buffet so maybe I should use Stampin' Blends? or I haven't brought the pencils to card buffet in a month or two, so maybe that would be fun! But wait, can I color that with the Soft Pastels?
Well, I ended up just spending the day coloring and having fun and I don't really know which way I like best.
Take a look at the varieties and tell me what you like!
First I tried watercolor, couldn't help myself.
I did a standard version with an image stamped in Stazon ink, then another version where I stamped lightly in Crumb Cake and then colored, to give a No-Line watercolor look. I used Poppy Parade, Granny Apple Green, touch of Daffodil Delight, and soft Suede. The base is Shimmery White Cardstock.
And here are the finished cards. I mounted the image onto a piece of Basic White cut out with the Scalloped Contours dies. The background is also Basic White embossed with the Gingham embossing folder. I used Parakeet Party for the sentiment. The black and white paper is from a discontinued black and white pack, but there is a newer version called perfectly Penciled that would be great too. I love that Stampin' Up! is giving us great Black and Whites all the time. They are great for customizing with color to match your projects. In some samples I did color the dots in with Stampin' Blends.
Another fun way to watercolor with stamps is to Emboss the image first. This makes watercoloring even easier, as that embossed edge helps guide your brush and hold the color into the areas that you want it. Here I embossed in copper on the bottom left and white on the bottom right.
Next I tried Stampin' Blends. This was my first time doing the No-Line technique with the Stampin' Blends! For some reason I think of this technique as a watercolor technique, but it can really be used with any medium.
I really enjoyed using the pencils. I forget how easy they are to use and to blend colors so nicely. I used colors from both the Assortment 1 & 2 packs. Again I did a lined and No-Line technique.
Since the pencils were out, I thought about using them on black. Here I embossed the image in white first. Markers and watercolor do not sit on the embossing powder, they sort of just run off and the embossed image still shines though, but the pencils do stay on the embossed areas, giving the color some fun brightness. I also used the white pencil to add a light layer of white down first before adding the colors on top.
Once I had the black cardstock out I just had to try a version with the Soft Pastels. This were really fun and I am glad I decided to try it.
I stamped the image in Craft white first, then just added the pastels.
Here is a close up.
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