Step Up Your Cardmaking with Brenda

Hello, Miss Ink friends!! Brenda here with you today!! I am starting a new series here called "Step Up Your Cardmaking". Every month I will create a clean and simple card and then show you how to "step it up" to a more complex card. I love to create both styles, depending on the mood that I'm in, but I tend to lean toward the "more is more" style...ha! Hopefully you can pick up some tips along the way!!

Let's get started!!

You can see both cards that I created above. We just got the fun, new Dazzle Dust color shifting glitters in the shop and I couldn't wait to use them. I don't always create my backgrounds first, but since I wanted to color my flowers to match the Dazzle Dust, I did this time. I mixed the Fairy Dust Dazzle Dust with Glossy Accents to make a paste and applied it with a palette knife onto white cardstock with the Halftone Diamonds Stencil.

It's really hard to photograph. but this created the coolest background...the color shifts as you move the paper!!

For the first card, I stamped the magnolia bouquet from the Magnolia Sympathy stamp set onto Bristol Smooth cardstock with Versafine Onyx Black Ink. I watercolored it with Tombow Dual Brush Markers in 679, 676 & 673 for the blooms, 245 & 176 for the stems.

I like to add some colored pencil detail to my images and you can see the difference that it makes in the photo below. (I apologize for the lighting difference, these were taken at different times on different days.)

Next, I diluted the two darkest colors of purple markers and splattered them onto the background. After it was dry, I die-cut the panel with a stitched rectangle die and matted it with purple cardstock. The sentiment, also from Magnolia Sympathy, was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black Ink.

A few sequins from Trinity Stamps finishes off the card!

OK...now for the "stepped up" version. I already showed you the stenciled background that we would be using. For this card, I stamped the floral images with FadeOut Ink for some no-line watercoloring. 

The same markers were used on these images. I just love the look of no-line coloring! I know it takes longer, but it's totally worth it, in my opinion. Here are the images after adding colored pencil detail and fussy cutting them out

I die-cut the stenciled background panel with the stitched rectangle die and matted it with purple cardstock. I wanted a place to "ground" my bouquet and place my sentiment without covering up too much of that pretty glittered background, so I die-cut a heart out of heavyweight vellum. I did some creative inking of the sentiment to place it in two lines to fit better on the heart and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. 

The magnolia bouquet was popped up with foam adhesive. Since the flowers were fussy cut, I was able to add a bloom and some leaves. I added a few Trinity sequins to this card, as well. The vellum was adhered to the background by placing adhesive behind the bouquet, sentiment and sequins.Here is another angle of that pretty Fairy Dust Dazzle Dust.

The second version is definitely more my style...how about you? Which do you tend to gravitate toward? I hope that I've given you a few ideas to step up your cardmaking!!

Have a great weekend!!