Lighten up with Pastel Colors

 

Working with lighter colors can be tricky, but the Altenew Academy class, Polychromatic, provides some good tips. Here's how this card came together:

1. Stamp the Paint a Flower Hydrangea flower image on white cardstock, but instead of stamping in black ink, use the color that coordinates to the each part of the flower. This means you won't ink up the entired stamp at one time. The Stamp Wheel or a Misti is vital here. I inked the leaves in Firefly green and stamped, then inked the petals in pale Frosty Pink and stamped. The Stamp Wheel allowed me to stamp again in the exact same position.  Dry well with a heat tool before coloring so the alcohol markers won't cause the stamped lines to bleed. 

                                           

2. Using Firefly and Frosty Pink alcohol markers, color in the image. Feather or flick the ink from the center outward towards, leaving the tips white. A second and third layer towards the center makes the color darker without using another shade.  The flower centers were colored in Citrus Burst yellow, which blended with the pink. 

 Creating the Background

3. On wet watercolor paper, use diluted inks to paint the background, matching the areas in the previously colored Hydrangea stamp. I used Firefly and Frosty Pink, but also applied some Peachy Glow as a transition color and Buttercream on the outer right edge.  This process is as easy as spritzing the paper, swiping ink on a palette, watering down the ink, and dabbing the ink on the wet paper with a wet brush. Use a lot of water for a light glow. Allow to dry. 

4.  Splatter with the same color inks used in each area.

5. To add a subtle pattern to the background, lightly ink up the leaves of the hydrangea stamp once more using the same green. Stamp the leaves in the green corner of the background.  Stamp petals on the top, right corner and down the right side using a very light application of Frosty Pink and Peachy Glow. This application will be more faint and less even than a regular crisp stamped image. This technique provides more of a subtle image since images farther away are more glowy in the sun. 

6. Die cut and adhere 3 nesting rectangle frames from white cardstock and adhere to the background. 

7. Cut the hydrangea image and adhere over the frames. 

8. Stamp the sentiment in a tone-on-tone effect using Frosty Pink ink on pink cardstock. Then stamp again using clear embossing ink and emboss with crystal clear embossing powder. Before adhering to the panel, cut a vellum mat for the sentiment to create a softer effect.  Adhere with foam tape to pop this layer up. 

9. Top the card off with some enamel dots to match the colors of the background. Add a little sparkle to the center of the flowers with a glitter brush pen. 

Tips: 

You don't need the exact same colors of embellishments or markers & inks to make your card look great. I used a shade of enamel dots from the Red Cosmos set and it looked great with the Frosty Pink Hydrangea Petals. The alcohol marker shade Frayed Leaf matched the Firefly stamped leaves well enough. 

Save your scraps! This set of 3 rectangle frames was leftover from another project. It worked well with the white tips of the hydrangea petals. 

Don't have the right color of embossing powder? You can make a colored embossed image with clear powder by stamping first in the colored ink, then clear embossing ink. 

Supplies from Altenew:

Paint a Flower Hydrangea Stamp and sentiment

Fresh Dye Inks: Firefly, Frosty Pink, Peachy Glow, Buttercream.

Alcohol Markers: Frayed Leaf, Frosty Pink, Citrus Burst

Enamel Dots: Green Fields, Pocket Full of Sunshine, Red Cosmos sets

Watercolor Paper 110 lb

Embossing ink

Crystal Clear Embossing powder

Other Supplies:

Nesting Rectangle Frames Die

Vellum paper

White cardstock

Glitter brush pen Scrapbook.com

Spray bottle