Simply Beautiful

Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.
                                             ---Rumi

Hi everyone and welcome back for another post here at Heartcraftpaper.  As you can see we have started out the month with a bang here!  It will be a very busy month.  

Today is our Sneak Peek Week over at the Craftin Desert Divas and this is one that I made with one of the newest release items!  As you can see I have quoted Rumi above.  One of the things that I love about this Persian Poet is the fact that his wording about love and flowers are ever so subtle and have such depth to their meaning.  Because of that I have decided this would be a wonderful quote for this card tutorial.

This is a fairly easy card to make since the focus is more on your colored image, you don't want to add to much to the card that it gets lost somewhere there.  Here is the list of items you will need to make this card:

• Kindness Stamp Set
• Inside Scalloped Rectangle Dies
• A2 Card Base
• White caradstock 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"
• Craft cardstock 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"
• Ribbon
• Scotch Tape
• Double sided tape
• Nuvo Crystal Drops - Morning Dew
• Momento Dye Ink
• White Gelli Roll Pen

To begin we will stamp out our image and sentiment in the center of our white cardstock.   Allow for the Sentiment to be about 1/2" distance above your bouquet. 

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Coloring your image:

**Click on the pictures to enlarge

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​First off lets begin with the Leaves.  For this we will start with our base color:

YG03:  Light tone (over whole leaf)
YG17:  Mid tone
YG67:  Dark Tone
G28;    Shadows

This actually would look nice as the card itself just as is with the greenery.   Hmmm...🤔

Next we will wok on the Daisy that is in the background.  Usually I like to work my way from bottom up.  

V000:  Light tone
V01:    Mid tone
V04:    Dark tone
​V06:    Shadows

Now lets work on the sunflower.  This is one of my favorites because of the yellows.  I find it to be such a happy color.

Y21:   Light tone 
Y15;   Mid tone
YR23: Dark tone
Y26:   Shadows

Now the stargazer, while it looks to have the least amount of color took the most shades out of all the flowers due to the gradation of colors from the center.  

For this you will leave a swatch of white around the top edge of your flower.

RV000: Light Light tone
RV00:   Light tone
RV02:   Mid Tone
RV06:   Mid Dark tone
RV09:   Dark Tone
RV69:   Shadows


To the right you will find the picture that I used as a reference for my rendering.  It's always best to use something just to make sure you are working the colors accurately.

For the Tulips I really wanted to do something special.  I felt that I didn't want to limit myself to just pinks and purples.  Because I drew in the yellow, I figured that an orange was needed and so I decided on tulip called "American Dream".

Y23:   Light tone (base color)
YR65: Mid tone
YR68: Dark Mid tone
R14:   Dark tone
R29;   Shadows

This is the image I used for my reference.  I felt that the flower was this wonderful blend of yellow, oranges and reds and perfect for what I wanted to make.  

Again it is especially important to use reference pictures to assist you in coloring your images.  Also knowing your light direction is important so you know where to cast shadows in your rendering. 

Finally I colored in my Peony with pinks.  Unlike the Stargazer, this is a much more delicate pink. I tried to yes less of the darker colors in this.

RV000:  Light tone
RV00:    Light Mid Tone
RV02:    Mid Tone
RV06:    Dark Tone
R85:      Shadows  

Here is the image I used for my reference.  While I did not go so dark as fuchsia, I added in some darkness with the R85 and RV06. I did this do that it would not blend into the stargazer. 

​STRATAGY!

Now lets finish off the smaller images. 

The Berries  

Simply use R29 to fill them in

Since this is a smaller image and is not the main focus, I chose to keep it as simple as possible and limited the coloring to a single color.

 For the Green Temptation (small leaf shapped berries) I used YG61.

This is a light green.  Again I did not want to distract from the larger flowers. 

For the small flowers that are strewn about the bouquet I used Y00.   Remember we want the focus on the larger flowers. 

Finally we will work the core of our flowers.  using:

Y15:  Base
​YR27: Shadows

This will give a little depth to the centers. 

Now that we have finished the whole bouquet, we will need to add some background coloring.  I used BG10 for this since is it a very light aqua.

I ran out ob B0000 😳.

We will use this color to fill in around the boquet and draw it out a little. 

Last but not least, add some detail to your sentiment.  Using a white Gelli Roll Pen I added some linear details on the font.  

** enlarge picture to see details.

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Flower Arranging.

Now that we have completed our image coloring, we are now ready to pull the whole thing together.  This is the easiest part of this card since it is so simple. 

1.  Die cut out your image in using the Inside Scalloped Rectangle dies form Craftin Desert Divas (linked above).   Retain your image and discard the white cut out as well as any refuse...unless you wish to keep the cut out and use it for another project.

🤪 What a splendid idea!

2.  Using the same die you will die cut your A2 craft cardstock.  You will retain the actual die cut for the boarder of your image. 

3.  Turn your image ver and place the craft die cut around it face down.  Then you will sue scotch tape to hold both image and die cut together.  I have seen labels used to do this as well.

4.  If you cut your A2 card base to size, then fold over and use a boning knife to burnish the folded edge. 

5,  Add double sided tape to the back side of your image piece and adhere it to the card base. 

6.  Finally you will add some finishing touches with the Nuvo Crystal drops.  I made three drops around my image and then made a few small dots here and there on the leaves of the bouquet.

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Complete!

I'm so glad that you stuck around to learn how to make this card.  I hope that you will visit HeartcraftPaper again. 

Don't forget to subscribe to get more tutorials, new and fresh ideas!  See you next time!