Inside The Lines Cards & Sneak Peek of NEW Sale-a-Bration Items!

Inside The Lines Perfect Day Cards—If you love to color, you're going to love the Inside The Lines Designer Series Paper that you can earn for FREE with a $50 order during Sale-a-Bration!  It's designed to be used with the awesome new Watercolor Pencils to bring a lovely, artistic look to your handmade cards!  

►►Watercolor Pencils Availability Update!  These pencils have been overwhelmingly popular!  So much so, that Stampin' Up! anticipates that they will likely deplete their current inventory in 2-3 weeks!  Although, they have ordered another shipment, it's likely that that those will not be available until late April. In other words…if you've been wanting to order them—ORDER THEM NOW!  I don't want you to have to wait! 

Background Basics—I created a vertically folded card base from Thick White Card Stock, measuring 4-1/4" x 11" and folded in half.  I like to use the Thick White Card Stock for card bases because it is super sturdy!

Watercoloring—I cut a 2" x 5" piece from one of the patterns of Inside The Lines DSP and colored it with dry Watercolor Pencils.  I used the Old Olive pencil for the leaves, coloring lightly over the entire leaf first, then adding some layers of color for shading.  This flower was colored with a combination Calypso Coral and Pumpkin Pie pencils, with the middle in Daffodil Delight and Early Espresso.

Once the color was laid down, I used an Aqua Painter to lightly paint on some water to dissolve and smooth out the color.  You only need a little water to blend the colors.  Once you start to paint with the brush, you'll get the hang of it very quickly!  It's super-easy!

Experimenting With Color—I tried out the Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry colors on the top flower.  It's fun to experiment with different blends and different intensities of color.  The more color you lay down, the bolder and brighter the color! 

Gold Flecks—See those tiny gold speckles over the flowers?  I used a Wink of Stella Gold pen to splatter on gold color!  To make the splatters, I held the pen in one hand and hit the pen on my other hand, which was held over the project.  The force of the hit causes the gold to splatter.  I suggest practicing on some scrap paper before trying on your project, so you can get the hang of it.  If you are having trouble getting it to splatter, try being more aggressive with hitting your hand, or push the sides of the barrel of the pen just a little to release more fluid.  I've also heard others running a toothpick or paper clip over the end of the brush to get it to splatter, but I didn't have much luck with that.  Just practice on scrap again before you do your project!

Finishing Touches—I stamped a Suite Sentiments greeting in Old Olive ink onto the card front.  Then, I tied some of the Metallic Ribbon from the Sale-a-Bration Ribbon around the card front and tied it into a double-knot.  I love how the gold metallic threads pick up the gold flecks on the flowers!  Earn that gold & silver ribbon combo for FREE with your $50 order during Sale-a-Bration!

Once it was dry, I adhered the watercolored paper onto a 2-1/8" x 5-1/8" piece of Old Olive card stock and popped it up with Dimensionals over the ribbon.  This is such a sweet card, don't you think?!

Too Cool—For the second version of my card, I combined the Calypso Coral with Melon Mambo pencils for a beautiful color blend on the flowers. 

I also tried a darker Basic Black and Early Espresso center, which I'm not sure I like as well.  I added a bit of Espresso to the leaves and stems, too.  It's fun to experiment with the color blends!

Products You'll Need To Make This Project