Celebrate Sunflowers – Happiness

I have combined the two weekend challenges to create a single card.

WEEKEND TECHNIQUE CHALLENGE – Use Soft Pastels. SUNDAY SKETCH CHALLENGE – SS008 and the Paper Players Challenge (#553) for the colors.

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Here is the result:

There are several ways to use the new Soft Pastels and I tried three different techniques:

• (1) Direct to Paper.  Using the Pastel as a crayon, color is applied directly to the center of the stamped image and then dragging the color out using a Q-Tip.
• (2) Water Bath Marbling.  The Pastels are shaved with a Crafting Knife to get colored dust which is then sprinkled in to a water bath, lightly swirled together and the watercolor paper is laid on top and then removed and allowed to dry.
• (3) Smudged. The Pastels are shaved with a Crafting Knife direct to wet paper and spritzed with water.   The shavings do not spread like ink but when dry, I smoothed/smudged out the sprinkles with my finger to create greater depth of color in select places.

Steps:

• Focal Image: (2” x 2”) Basic White cardstock.  The small Sunflower stamp from the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp set was stamped three times with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored using Technique (1).  The Soft Pastels chosen were Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody, Poppy Parade and Mossy Meadow.  The Sunflowers were then die-cut with the coordinating die from the Sunflowers Dies set.
• Focal Image Accent Mat: (1⅜” x 1⅜”) Mossy Meadow cardstock scrap was cut into three squares and then dry-embossed with the Tasteful Textile 3D Embossing Folder.
• Rectangle Panel: (5” x 1¾”) Poppy Parade cardstock.
• Flag: (1⅜” x 2”): Mossy Meadow cardstock scrap flagged (¾”).
• Background Panel: (5¼” x 4”) Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper. Marbled and Smudged using Techniques (2) and (3). Once the panel was completely dry, the sentiment, Wishing you every happiness…, from the Peaceful Moments stamp set was stamped with Mossy Meadow ink.

To complete this card, I chose a Mossy Meadow card base (8½” x 5½” scored at 4¼”).  All of the elements were adhered to match the sketch.  I took a little liberty with the colors substituting Poppy Parade for Real Red, Mossy Meadow for Old Olive and adding Mango Melody to the Daffodil Delight for a deeper contrast.

I am looking forward to exploring more Soft Pastel techniques and using more of the colors in the pack.  What do you think?  Will you give the Soft Pastels a try?

Thanks for spending some of your time with me today.   Cheers,  Jolanda!

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Like this card? Want to make one similar?
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