Hi, there, Papercrafters!
Last week, after I was finishing up with my Basket-themed projects, I just felt like I needed some flowers. At the same time, a group to which I belong, one of whose emblems is a yellow rose, scheduled an end-of-season get together. I glanced through my collection of new stamp sets. It didn’t take me long to find the gorgeous roses in the Happiness Abounds Stamp Set AND in the new Hues of Happiness Designer Series Paper set. More about the paper later this week, though. Today I’m just sharing a quick look at the Bookmarks.
Coloring the Roses
For all 15 of the Bookmarks I made, I individually stamped and colored each rose. And therein lies a lesson learned.
To begin, I do not often use my Stampin’ Blends Markers to do much in the way of shading. Oh, I do a little bit of shading now and then. But usually that involves some large area when I’d like to see a bit of a shadow. In this case, though, these roses have lots of line art that creates very small spaces in which to color. When it comes to alcohol markers, those little spaces, created by stamping with black ink, don’t do well. Even when I used Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, the ink of choice when using Stampin’ Blends, the black bleeds into the color when I try to blend two of them as I did with these roses. If you look at the top of the rose on the left, where I used just the light Daffodil Delight Stampin’ Blends Marker, there is no bleeding.
Next time, I’ll just color with my markers and not attempt to do any blending.
Constructing the Bookmarks
Those of you who’ve used alcohol markers know that they bleed right through to the back of most cardstock. Even with the Thick Basic White Cardstock, which I used for these roses, there is some bleeding. I didn’t want that to show on the back of the bookmark. Yet I wanted the shape of the rose to form the top. To make this happen, I created my bookmark as wide as the widest section of the rose. Then I laid a stamped rose at the top of the bookmark rectangle and traced around the top of the rose. Then I cut the rose shape away. Finally, I glued a leaf (or two) and the rose to the bookmark.
Finishing Up
My initial intention was to use some of the Designer Series Paper to decorate the front of the bookmark. But, once I got that rose on, the paper seemed to make it a bit too “busy.” So off I went looking for some stamped images to complete the design. I found the sentiment in the Flowers of Friendship Stamp Set, and stamped it in Granny Apple Green Ink. That seemed to be the perfect way to say, “Thank You,” for the members of our group that have helped so much this year. In looking around for a small flower, the first one I found was in the Cup of Tea Stamp Set.
Next time it’s back to cards, and another week of CASEing the Catalog! I can’t wait to show you what I’ve been working on! Meanwhile, don’t forget that you can buy every Stampin’ Up! product I write about in these articles from me, in my own, personal Stampin’ Up! store. Just click on anything in the slide show of products below, and you’ll be carried away to that store to shop!
Happy Stamping – and shopping!
