Hi Sweet Friends!!!

I am excited to share with you my first official design team project for Honey Bee Stamps. I have had the pleasure of doing some guest work for HBS in the past, but I am so excited to be apart of what is an extremely talented team!

Today I will be working with the Color My World stamp set. It’s an adorable 4×4 stamp set that just reminds me of the current coloring book craze.

What spoke to me when I saw this stamp set is a card I knew I wanted to make for my daughter. Every birthday and christmas, for as long as I can remember, I have given her a coloring book. Far before the amazing coloring books that are available currently.  I would search and search for the perfect one ( in the past I would buy her a lot of coloring books from Dover) With her birthday coming up I knew this would be the perfect card to go with the new coloring book that I got for her.

I decided to go with a non traditional card size. I picked up these cute envelopes from my LSS that are 3 1/2 x 6 1/2. My card panel measures 3×6 and my card is 3 1/4 x 6 1/4 unfolded. The card base is Bazzill Marshmallow cardstock and the panel is Strathmore Bristol 300 series. This size envelope is perfect for making cards from a 6×6 paper pad!

First I stamped all of the images using Tsukineko VersaFine Onyx Black ink. I love this ink because it gives a crisp bold black line and it is waterproof. I did a little masking but not too much. I first stamped the sentiment and then the florals and leaves. I tried to stamp using a visual triangle to balance the card.  After I had everything stamped, I measured out a 1/4 inch border around the entire card.

I sketched the border lightly in pencil so that I could erase easily. Sometimes I am just not careful enough. While I was doing all the inking, I got some smudges and inky fingerprints on my card (sad face).

Now when something like this happened before I would more than likely start all over, but I found an amazing eraser that cannot live without now!

The Tombow MONO Sand Eraser is a magic wand!! You just lightly rub the mistake/smudge with the eraser, and if you rub off some of your inked up image you just go over it with a waterproof pen/marker. I used my trusty Sakura Pigma Micron pen (I used the .05 here but you can match up your stamp line width to the different size micron pens available).

I thought I would break out my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers for this project. They haven’t been getting enough love lately and I love using them on the bristol cardstock. I used a light, medium, and dark shade of all the rainbow colors (Some color groups had 4 shades because I couldn’t decide) but any color combo would look lovely. The technique I used for this card is called “spotlight coloring”. The 1/4 border that I made around the edge will be colored with shades of gray and the inside will be the vibrant color. This really pops the color in the center of the card and emphasizes the sentiment of “Coloring my world”.

With the border, I colored and shaded the images with all gray markers. I shaded these just like I would with the different shades of colored markers. Even if you don’t have a wide range of the brush markers I would recommend picking up at least one Gray Clean Color Real Brush marker as it is perfect for adding a shadow to stamped images and text. Now on to the fun part!

I colored in all of the florals and leaves with the markers and chose a very light shade of blue for the inner rectangle background. I left the border background white. It was at this point that I felt that my sentiment didn’t pop out enough. I decided to take a darker shade of blue and color around the sentiment area making that more of a focal point.

I also added some glitter using my Spectrum Noir Sparkle Glitter Brush Pen in clear. It is hard to see in the photo but it really made the word COLOR super sparkly! I added some faux stitched outline on my card base and popped up my panel with some fun foam so it is slightly raised. I used the full panel of fun foam as it will be going through the mail and I didn’t want it to get smooshed.

I think it’s the little details that really make a handmade card something really special. I took the smallest floral stamp in the set, and stamped the lower right and the upper left corners with a cluster of just the flower, then I outlined them with a grey marker to give a shadowed effect.  I was on a roll and couldn’t stop there so why not dress up the back of the card and the envelope too!

The same idea as the inside of the card. I took  the medium size floral and stamped the corners of the envelope and outlined in gray. I decided to leave these just black and white because I wanted the card to be the center stage of color. I will position the postage just to the left of the floral cluster and I think it will add a great touch when it is all addressed and ready to go.

The handmade stamp was a custom stamp (Coming to The Crafty Pickle Etsy shop SOON) and I added the small daisy and leaf stamp from the set to tie it into the card design. This one I did color. I felt it added the perfect final touch.

Here is a look at my final card.

 

I hope you enjoyed my first Honey Bee Stamps DT Project, and even more I hope my daughter loves this card! I can’t wait to give it to her (Lexi if you read this blog post just act surprised LOL)

Listed below (and within my blog post) are the links to the products I have used for this project. Affiliate links may be used, this means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. I really appreciate your support toward the costs of running this blog.

Color My World Stamp Set: Honey Bee Stamps
Slim Envelopes at ImpressCardsandCrafts.com
Bazzill Basics Paper Card Shoppe Heavy Weight Cardstock, 25 Sheets, 8.5 by 11-Inch, Marshmallow
Strathmore Smooth Bristol 300 Series
Tsukineko Full-Size VersaFine Instant Dry Pigment Ink, Onyx Black
Tombow MONO Sand Eraser
Sakura 8-Piece Pigma Micron Pen Set, Black
Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker Set
Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker, Cool Gray
Spectrum Noir Sparkle Glitter Brush Pen Clear Overlay, 3 Piece

I hope you all have a blessed and wonderful weekend!

Happy Crafting!