Nature Walk

Well, who doesn't like colouring in?  I for one love using my Stampin' Markers and Blender Pen.

Here's a card I demonstrated as a Make & Take at my 2011 Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue party. This botanical card was stamped with the very lovely Nature Walk set and I absolutely love it. I chose to use vivid colours but one could mute it down easily with neutral colours or not colour in at all.

project recipe
stamps: Nature Walk (WM 123559), Well Scripted (retired)

ink: Classic Stampin' Pad - Not Quite Navy (103008), Night of Navy (102977), Old Olive (102277), Pear Pizzazz (119784); Stampin' Write Marker - Cherry Cobbler (119681), So Saffron (10006), Jet Black StazOn Ink Pad (101406

card stock: Crumb Cake (121685), Cherry Cobbler (12168), Very Vanilla (106550), Watercolour Paper (105019)

tools: Scallop Border Punch (11988), Blender Pen (2102845), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430)

 cardessence tips

• there are 2 ways to achieve the 2 colours on the plant stamp - you can either use only markers or you can first ink up the whole plant in Old Olive or Pear Pizzaz and remove the ink where the flowers are with a cotton bud before inking them with the Cherry Cobbler marker.
• ink up the bird and butterfly with the StazOn Jet Black and stamp on the Watercolour Paper
• Bird: start with So Saffron marker first, colour around the eyes, a large area under the wing, beak and legs; use the blender pen and pick up Cherry Cobbler ink from the ink pad and apply a light "wash" on the bottom of the bird, blending into the SS colour; add a thin bold CC marker swatch at the base/upper legs before switching to the blender pen to pull and blend the darker colour into the SS part (this technique will give you the desired shading effect); pick up Not Quite Navy ink from pad with the blender pen and colour in the top half of the bird, blending into the SS around the eyes; add shading with Night of Navy.

• Butterfly: again start with SS marker; with the blender pen, pick up NQN and fill in the rest of the butterfly - blending into the SS areas; use NON to add a darker shading at the wing joints.
• always begin colouring with a light colour and progress to the darkest.
• to avoid a harsh line where the colour transitions into another, use feathery strokes.
• the Watercolour paper is 100% cotton, cold-pressed paper and is able to withstand 9 passes of colour; a worthwhile investment if you want to achieve proper colour saturation and vividness.

 TTFN