Pink Birthday with Erica

 

Hi there!

Erica on the blog today. How are we all doing? All recovered after the sugar rush from Valentine’s/Galentine’s Day?

It’s still February and February to me is pink, pink, pink. I know, not much different from every other month. Lol, I am a pink kinda gal after all. Today’s card is a medley of different pinks. Light and dark shades mixed to create some lovely blooms as a base for a birthday wish.

I used a stamp from a company called The Ton, which does fabulous flower stamps, and this one is called ‘Thoughtful Poppies’. It’s a large cluster of poppies and leaves which I decided to colour in pinks instead of the traditional red. I don’t know about you, but I find it quite difficult to colour reds properly. Whenever I attempt to use red, it seems to end up looking more like a blood bath than a crafty masterpiece. It’s one of those things that for me, just isn’t worth dwelling on. Especially not when you have a deadline to meet! Reds are best left for days when it’s all doodling for fun and not when your aim is to hopefully inspire someone else…

SUPPLIES:

Birthday Lions Clear Stamp Set

Darling Ribbon and Dotted Frames Creative Dies

Icy Breeze sequins in 4mm

Clear Drops in 4mm

Anyway, I stamped up the flowers on a piece of Copic friendly white card stock with my new favourite ink ‘Black Licorice’ from My Favorite Things. It works with Zigs, watercolours and copics! I used to use Memento in Tuxedo Black which works great for Copics but bled when I used Zig markers and watercolours. Probably because my colouring style is quite swishy-swashy and not very precise at all… And I am not a fan of Archival ink as it stains the stamps so badly, one of my pet hates. I know it’s unavoidable in the long run for stamps to get stained but I really do not like it when they get stained on the first use. Nope. That’s one of my little quirks. Ideally I would love to have two sets of each stamp I get just so I could keep one in mint condition. Yeah, I know. That’s about as nuts as squirrel poop….

Right, well, anyway… erm.. card making… ok. Right, so where was I? Ah, pink poppies. Yes. I used several different pink Copic markers and used a flicking method of colouring. I like doing this especially on flower petals and leaves as it gives a nice, natural look. I didn’t take it too seriously and flicked this way and that until I was happy with the look. For a really natural looking petal I like leaving lots of light spaces and also using lots of different shades. If you don’t have too many of the same colour, you can create lighter and darker areas by layering with other colours. It’s best to test on a separate piece of paper if you aren’t sure they work together but it’s sometimes surprising which colours off-set each other beautifully so this is worth exploring for sure.

On the leaves I did the same flicking of the markers, only on these I alternated colour combos on the leaves. As there are six of them, it was easy to get the balance right. I also added lots of dots on the leaves. I’m kind of obsessed with dots right now… as evident when you look at the rest of the card!

 

I outlined the stamp with light cold grey Copic marker (C-1) to frame them a little. And I really meant to keep it quite subtle but that went out the window quite quickly. You will notice that I didn’t go all the way out to the edges of the card though, I wanted to leave a bit of white to balance out all the grey. Using C-3 and C-5 markers I also added lots of dots around the flower to create yet another frame for it. To cover up a few little colouring mistakes I also added a few grey dots on the leaves.

Once I finally finished with the colouring I picked out a couple of creative cuts, one to cut out the A2 shape from Darling Ribbon And Dotted Frames and also the lovely dotted fancy frame from the same set. The A2 part I adhered to a black card base and using the fancy frame I cut out another two pieces in black card stock which I adhered to the back of the coloured piece to create a raised look before adding it to the card base too. The ‘Happy Birthday’ sentiment is from Birthday Lions and I stamped it on a small banner I had die cut in vellum, also from Darling Ribbon And Dotted Frames , before heat embossing it with rose gold embossing powder. I adhered it with a special vellum adhesive, which admittedly works the best out of all the ones I have tried, but I absolutely detest the “gun” it comes in…. It doesn’t ever, EVER just come off where I want it, it bundles up and the level of waste is atrocious. Meh.

When it comes to final touches I’m a big fan of sequins and you are really spoilt for choice with the selection Studio Katia carries. I used some Icy Breeze sequins in 4mm size and also a few of these fun little drop embellishments Clear Drops in 4mm, which I sprinkled slightly randomly all over the card and adhered with glossy accents.

By using a creative cut to raise part of an image you get an interesting and elegant look without obstructing any of it. Here at Studio Katia   you will find a range of fun and original creative cuts which will take your card making to the next level and did you hear? You can now shop Studio Katia products at SIMON SAYS STAMP and if you can’t wait to see for yourself, I added a direct link to it: Studio Katia !!

With a final photo of my card, that’s it from me this time. See you soon again!

Happy crafting from Erica (find me on instagram @erica_cacacraft )

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