Pastel Challenge

Hello & Happy Easter!

It’s the start of a new month and that means a new challenge over at Dare 2B Artzy. I’m so excited to be taking part in Dare 2B Artzy’s latest challenge for the Month of April. Our challenge theme this month is Pastel Colors.

For today’s card and the new theme, I challenged myself to use colors that I don’t typically reach for in my card designs. I love using my favorite colors – purple, pink, blue and all shades in-between those colors. I’m sure I’m not alone in reaching for my favorite colors to use when crafting. Today I wanted to delve into some other color possibilities that work perfectly with this month’s Pastel theme.

To start my card, I pulled out some Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers in shades of Blue-green. I have a limited number of Spectrum Noir markers, but I happened to have a good range of the blue-green colors. I colored a piece of Neenah Solar white cardstock in 110lb weight in a ombre pattern from darkest to lightest and being sure to blend the colors together so there were no harsh lines. The possibilities are endless when you use alcohol markers to color your cardstock and then die cut them. This is a great option when you’re wanting to use specific colors, but you don’t have any pre-printed cardstock to match the colors you need.

Once I’d finished my coloring, I die cut the piece of cardstock using the Dare 2B Artzy background Trellis die. The die is very detailed so I did use my Gemini Jr die cut machine to make sure all of the little details were thoroughly cut. In hind sight, I should have allowed the ink on the cardstock to dry a bit longer as I got a bit of shadowing after I cut the cardstock from the ink transferring to my cutting plate, (you can see the shadow a bit at the top of the die cut peice) but that’s OK. I love this trellis die from Dare 2B Artzy – it’s so pretty and would be great for making shaker cards as well.

Once my background was die cut, I set it aside. Next, I cut a second piece of 110lb cardstock to ¼ inch larger than the A2 size of the background die. I lightly sponged on some yellow ink starting at the bottom and moving up to the middle of the cardstock piece. I was very generous in applying my ink towards the bottom because I wanted it to be vibrant at the bottom and have a softer color towards the center. Because the ink takes a while to dry I set it aside as well.

For my focal element, I used the Big Blooms flower and colored it with my Copic markers using pinks and yellows to compliment my background. I added a small amount of clear Wink of Stella glitter pen to the flower just to give a small amount of shimmer to the card. When my coloring was finished I fussy cut the flower out and added some dimensional foam to the back of it to pop it up on my card.

I thought that the Spring Blessings sentiment from the April Showers stamp was a perfect complement to the card. I stamped the sentiment with some Versamark and heat set it with some bright yellow embossing powder.

If you want to participate in this months challenge, create and share a link to your pastel card projects on the Dare 2B Artzy Challenge Post which is up today on the Dare 2B Artzy blog.

 We look forward to seeing your Pastel creations. While it’s not necessary to use Dare 2B Artzy stamps & products in your creations, we’d be thrilled if you did. There is a prize for the winner of the April challenge – a free stamp set and ink pad of your choice.

Thanks for stopping by. I’ve linked to the products I used in today’s post below

Hugs

Tonya

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