Coloring Outside the Lines

I should be writing.  I really should.  But it's Labor Day and, somehow, it's a good excuse to sit at my craft table and play the day away.  (Hey...that rhymes.  Counts as creative writing in my book!)

This week's challenge at Heart2Heart is "Coloring."  I decided to use a technique I learned from an Online Card Class called "Stretch Your Stamps 2" to do a little "outside the lines" coloring.

Here's the supply list (all CTMH):

Stamps: Shower Flowers, Doodled Designs, Finding the Words
Ink: Cotton Candy, Hollyhock, Ruby, Topiary, Pear, Black Archival

To get the color variations and watercolor look of this, the technique requires solid images stamped and twisted slightly on glossy paper. I used a paintbrush and watered down Pear ink to fill in the light green.  The pink splotches were done by flicking watered down Ruby ink with a paintbrush.

I drew my lines--which I'm calling coloring--with the fine tip end of a Sharpie Marker.  For the fun of it, I altered the smooth edges of the largest flowers by drawing jagged edges.

This is a very free-form kind of coloring. It's almost impossible to make a mistake, but if you don't like what you come up with, it's only paper!!

After I had stamped and colored my flowers, I trimmed the panel to 4x5.25 and stamped the circle from Doodled Designs off the edge. I trimmed out the center, laid it over the card base, and used it as the guide for stamping my sentiment.  I can't actually draw, so I love how the doodled circle effortlessly builds on the free-form drawing theme.

Hmmm...it's gorgeous outside.  I think I'll use "we aren't going to have many more days like this" as my next excuse to avoid writing.

Until next time,
Becca