Colored pencil flowers

Last month I participated in the 30-Day Coloring Challenge with the goal to color a little bit each day. Well, I didn't quite make it through the whole challenge (I think I got through the Nov. 20 or so), but I did color more than I usually do, so I consider that a success. I even put together a little coloring bag for work and colored during my break on a few days. Some days I worked on a page in a coloring book, but other days I focused on coloring stamped images that I could turn into cards. Here are the first few of those cards:

Supplies:
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black Bermuda Bay card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Powder Pink (Stampin' Up!); colored pencils: PC928, PC930, PC942, PC1002, PC992, PC1027 (Prismacolor)
Accessories: Scattered Floral stencil (Taylored Expressions), blender  brush (Picket Fence Studios), "smile" and "hello" dies (Gina K Designs), black enamel dots (Eyelet Outlet), gamsol blending kit (Taylored Expressions), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

This was my coloring from the first day of the challenge, and it was a new technique, too. Kathy Racoosin explained the technique in her first blog post for the challenge, but basically it's no-line coloring with a stencil instead of a stamp.

I used a blender brush to apply very light pink ink over a floral-patterned stencil. This part was a little tricky because the ink is so light it's hard to tell if you're covering the stencil. (If you want to check, hold the stencil firmly in place and carefully lift up one corner to peek at your card stock.) Once that was done, I used colored pencils to color over the lightly inked flowers.

I chose pink, yellow, and blue to color the flowers and used gamsol to blend them and soften the pencil lines. Then I used darker accent colors to add centers to the flowers. Once all the coloring was done, I cut the panel in half, mounted each piece on black card stock and adhered them to Bermuda Bay card bases. To add the sentiments, I die-cut each word a few times from black card stock, glued them together and adhered them to the cards. One black enamel dot was the finishing touch for each card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Cosmos Background (Simon Says Stamp), Simple Strips Background (Taylored Expressions)
Paper: Lovely Lipstick, Basic Black, Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, VersaMark (Tsukineko); colored pencils: PC911, PC921, PC929, PC930, PC942, blender pencil (Prismacolor)
Accessories: Simple Strips die (Taylored Expressions), white embossing powder (Hero Arts), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), foam tape (3M), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

These cards have the same layout as the first pair, but this time I used a stamped background. I colored each flower in the image with one pencil, applying light color to the whole flower and using more pressure to add the darker details. I blended the colors with a blender pencils and, if needed, added more dark strokes. Then I cut the image in half, mounted the pieces on black card stock, and adhered them to Lovely Lipstick card bases. For the sentiments on these cards I used embossed sentiment strips, and I added a few clear sequins for a subtle embellishment.

If you're interested in participating in a coloring challenge, there's another one coming up in February. I encourage you to try it out; you don't have to officially sign up or anything, so you could even just follow along on the blog or Instagram and do your own coloring when you can. I don't often do a lot of coloring when I'm making cards, so it was fun to focus on that a little bit. And I ended up with at least a dozen cards with the images I colored (I'll be sharing them all on my blog)!

Thanks for stopping by today! I mentioned in my last post that I was going to be sharing some Christmas ornaments. I did make some yesterday, but I'm not quite finished yet -- and I need to get better pictures in the daylight -- so they're still to come.