Good morning! Sorry for the blog absence…I was battling a nasty cold for a few weeks and the creative mojo fled the house…eek! But I’m finally back and have lots to share this week! If you follow me on instagram you know I’ve been sharing lots of alcohol ink art there but I’ve been working on cards behind the scenes! 😉 My first card was a labor of love but I think the results were worth the time and effort…I hope you’ll agree!
I’ve been falling in love hard with my Caran d’Ache Luminance colored pencils and really enjoy using them on colored cardstock! The colors blend beautifully and effortlessly! I also own prismacolor and polychromos pencils and the luminance, by far, are my favorite. They’re a softer lead (wax and oil mix-based) and they blend with less effort, in my opinion, than the polychromos. However if you really like the hard lead of the polychromos for super detailed lines, these are a little harder to use. I don’t do a lot of work with detail lines like that (mostly because I can’t) so that’s not a negative for me. But I’ve also seen artists combine the polychromos and luminance and might try that soon to see how they work together! The luminance do have more of a wax lead (more similar to the prismacolor pencils) but they don’t leave that glossy waxy bloom that the prismas will leave even after lots and lots of layers which is AWESOME!
To start I stamped the bouquet from Simon Says Stamp’s Let Us Rejoice onto slate grey cardstock with unicorn white pigment ink. I laid down a layer of white section by section and then colored over the white with my colors. You can skip the white layer but I feel like it tends to make the colors brighter and more vibrant! I used malachite green (180), light malachite green (181), and beryl green (214) for the turquoise-y teal leaves. Then I used apricot (041), anthraquinoid pink (571), scarlet (070), and crimson alizarin hue (589) for the flowers! It took me about two days to finish the coloring and I added the left berry to cover a spot where I accidentally dropped a pencil on my paper…sigh.
Once it was finished I struggled to think of what to do about the sentiment. I didn’t want to cover it up any of my coloring work so I decided to go with something a little more subtle. I stamped the beautiful scripty sentiment from an older retired SSS set, Handwritten Floral Greetings, onto the panel with white pigment ink using my MISTI. I let it dry for a few minutes then I wiped off the stamp and inked it with dried marigold distress oxide ink. Finally I inked it once more with versamark and heat-embossed it with clear embossing powder. The white layer helps the orange pop and the clear embossing powder seems to seal it in and keep it nice and vibrant! Finally I trimmed the panel down slightly, added a mat with Hero Arts Hues papaya cardstock, and adhered it to a slate grey card base!
And that’s it! Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful Monday!!
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Great idea Jessica! Looks amazing!!!
Gorgeous coloring! I love the colors on dark card stock!!
Dear Jessica
Oh what lovely coloring. I loved it I need to take a few lessons frm you.
Recently I had to color a unicorn using watercolor pencils. It was the first time I used them and I am not gd at art after all. But I was happy with the result. I used coleen water color pencils. It was a gift for the love of my life.my little grand daughter. Thank you for sharing your labor of love with me. Tc stay blessed always. Love and hugs from Sri Lanka.
Gorgeous! I need to give coloring on dark cardstock a try!! Thanks for the inspiration!
Lovely pencil colored card, Jessica. I especially like the berry drops used as part of the floral design. tfs
Jessica This is a stunning card I am impressed witj the ferny leaves
This is so beautiful! I have to give this a try too. Your coloring is spot on and it amazes me how well you did the ferny branches. I would have messed those fine detail things up for sure.
Glad you are feeling better, Jess, & thank you for sharing this gorgeous creation. Love those vibrant colors on the darling background! Thanks also for the great tip on stamping the sentiment!
This is a gorgeous card! I was not familiar with those colored pencils, so I learned something!
This card is amazing! It was well worth the work.
I’m glad you are feeling better. Your card looks gorgeous! I love the look of colored pencils on dark cardstock, and your coloring is so pretty. 🙂