Hi, crafty friends. Have you checked out Alberto Gava’s Coloring Club challenge over on Instagram yet? There is a total of 10 challenges running in April, each one with a different theme lasting 3 days. I’m kind of late with this “Water” themed one, but better late than never?
I combined Sapphire, Steel & Cobalt with Skip and the Rainbow Falls background. They’re all from last year’s summer’s Amongst the Pines collection from Purple Onion Designs. I stamped the images in Altenew Obsidian ink onto Fabriano Artístico Extra White Cold pressed watercolor paper.
I didn’t want color on the entire piece and decided on coloring a strip that includes the largest part of the waterfall, the beaver and part of the mama swan. I used Zig clean color real brush markers to color, using the blender for some of it, but a size 4 round watercolor brush from Princeton, along with water, for most of it. The Zig colors I used are the following: 068 Deep Brown, 816 Soft Violet, 028 Pale Pink, 705 Peach Orange, 505 Yellow Ochre, 407 Grass Green, 406 Sage Green, 411 Cactus Green, 307 Aqua Blue, 315 Ultramarine and 910 Warm Gray 6.
Once my coloring was complete, I cut the colored section apart from the rest. I adhered the uncolored sections onto a black mat I created from Black cardstock from Concord & 9th. Behind the colored panel, I stacked a few layers of cardstock for dimension and adhered it in between the other two pieces. I adhered my finished piece onto a card base that I created from Blue Beyond cardstock from My Favorite Things.
I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Sweet Summer sentiment set from Purple Onion Designs onto a scrap piece of black cardstock. I added a few cardstock layers behind it and adhered it to the card, before finishing off with a few blue enamel dots from Papirdesign.
I used grays for my coloring of this 
I used the Watercolor Wash Free Form die and the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set from My Favorite Things to cut a window opening and create the faux stitching on the edges of a piece of Dove cardstock from Concord & 9th. I used the Watercolor die to cut a few more layers from white cardstock to glue behind the grey for dimension.
I scribbled a bit of N5 Copic marker on a scrap of Dove cardstock to make it a little darker, let it dry, then stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the A Beautiful Day Sentiment Set from Purple Onion Designs (unfortunately, I think the set’s discontinued, I couldn’t find it when searching the POD store). I then used one of the dies in the Essential Stitched Sentiment Strips die set from MFT to carry on the faux stitching look that I already had going. I added a few strips of cardstock behind it for even more dimension and adhered it in the bottom left of the card.
To finish off the card. I adhered a few Dew Drops from Concord & 9th. With greyscale coloring, grey cardstock, white heat embossing and clear dew drops, it looks like I took black and white photos of this card, but I promise I didn’t.
I don’t think I’ve ever colored an image with less markers.
To start, I die cut this focal image with a tag die. I die cut another in white to put on the back for a little strength and put my tag aside while I worked on my card base.
I used the Wimpelkette stencil set from Create a smile to create the pennants in the background. The set consists of 3 stencils that layer and create an easy pennant background. I used Peachy Glow and Amber Blaze inks from Altenew with two of the stencils, and through the third one, I added a layer of Solar Paste in the Golden Hour color. It creates a little bit of shine and some texture.
I mounted the tag with foam tape in the center of the card, used 1/16″ foam squares on the back of the Gratulerer word sticker to make it stand out a little, then trimmed down the sentiment strips slightly and adhered them to the tag.
To finish off the card I added a few black gems and tied a bow using black cotton thread from Kort & Godt.
First of all, this card is huge. It measures 5 1/2 x 7 1/4″. I started by stamping HAPPY from the All the birthdays stamp set from Concord & 9th onto half a sheet of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I used Aqua Sky, Buttercup, Grapefruit and Honeysuckle inks, all from Concord & 9th. It was easy to shift the cardstock up and down in my Misti to get them all lined up. I then stamped the scripty birthday word in the stamp set using Obsidian ink from Altenew, making sure that the bottom part of the letters matched up with the Grapefruit stamping.
I trimmed down the panel, added a few more panels behind it for dimension and adhered it to my card front that I had covered with strips of cardstock colors in the same colors as my inking. I decided not to add any embellishments to this, sometimes you just need a simple card. This one would be super easy to create in a lot of different color combos. I’m longing for proper spring and summer, so mine’s with happy colors.
I started by fussy cutting this floral image, leaving a white border around it. I then used the Crystal Distortion embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp on my card base to create some interest to it.
I added a piece of Lemon Tart cardstock from Papertrey Ink at a bit of an angle at the bottom of my card front, and glued a small strip of Gold Shine cardstock from My Favorite Things at the top for a defined edge between the white and yellow. I put foam squares on the back of my flowers and adhered the image on the left hand side of the front, chopping off the overhanging bit and adhering it to the inside so it didn’t go to waste.
Using Die360 from Kort & Godt, I die cut klem four times from Nautical cardstock from Hero Arts and stacked them for a dimensional look. I die cut the shadow from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink (the same cardstock that I used for the card base) and adhered the stacked word to it, before putting foam squares on the back of the right half, adhering it directly to the image on the left.
I used one of the sentiment sticker strips from Kort & Godt to finish my sentiment. I trimmed it down slightly to make it more narrow and ink blended it with Winter Lake fresh dye ink from Altenew to make it match the blue in the flowers. I adhered the strip on top of the die cut and finished off the card with a few faceted pearls.
I love this Sweet Stems die set from Concord & 9th. It was part of their February release, and it’s so versatile. It has a separate coordinating stencil set (which I didn’t use for this card), which is great if you want lots of color, but not spend 512 hours on a card. The die set consists of a cover die, which is what I used here, and seven smaller dies. One of them cuts the outline for Hey Friend, which is a sentiment in the coordinating stamp set. I love when you can mix and match products like this.
I used the cover die to cut a bajillion pieces from white cardstock (Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink), then cut one panel each from Peacock, Honeycomb, Nectar and Grapefruit cardstock, all Concord & 9th colors. I started with one of the white outlines adhered to a piece of Harbor cardstock (also a C9 color), and puzzle pieced the stems and leaves into it with the Peacock color.
In total, I stacked 6 white outlines and added the flowers and the flower centers at varying depths. The flowers are all slightly different shapes, but the centers are all the same, making them easy to stack.
Once I removed the masks, I could color in my scene. I always start with the background elements before coloring in the focal point. I wanted a very wintery card, so I kept the trees pretty much white, only adding a little bit of the blues I used for the rest of the snow to make them look less flat.
I stamped a sentiment from the 
I cut my panel down to 4 1/2 x 5 3/8″, which gave me an even 1/16″ border around the edge when I adhered it to my A2 card base. I love a think border like this. I also love a very chunky border, usually when I mount my panels with foam tape. To me, it seems silly to add foam tape to a panel that goes close to the edge of the card, but with a wide border, it really makes an impact. I finished off the card by drawing in the Big Dipper stars using an extra fine point Sharpie paint marker.
Not a whole lot of markers used for this one, actually. Although I see that I missed the colors I used (BV29, 25, 23) for the sky in this graphic.
I started by stamping the large flower in the Pristine Peonies stamp set from Altenew using VersaMark ink. I added Gilded embossing powder from Brutus Monroe and melted the powder before die cutting the flower and then using the coordinating stencils to quickly color in the flower and leaves. I used Nectar, Grapefruit, Sorbet and Cayenne inks from Concord & 9th for the florals, and Pistachio, Misty Sage, Mossy Meadow and Green Opal Fresh dye inks from Altenew for the leaves and buds.
I die cut an additional three layers of the floral from white cardstock to glue behind my colored one, did partial die cutting on the card base using the same die and then ran the base through my Gemini Jr. with the Angled Mosaic embossing folder from Altenew to create some texture to the card front.
I adhered a panel of Grapefruit cardstock from Concord & 9th to the inside to accentuate the look of the open front, and added my stacked die cuts to the front of the card base. Even though the tips of the leaves touching the table when the card is on display are pointy, all the layers make for a very sturdy front, so they won’t bend.
I actually used a Christmas die for the sentiment. The die cuts out the word juleklem (Christmas hug), but by omitting the first four letters, I was left with klem (hug). I die cut two stacks of three layers each and die cut the shadow layer from Heavyweight Translucent vellum from My Favorite Things. I sandwiched the vellum between the two stacks and adhered my stacked die cut on top of the flower. I stamped and gold heat embossed a coordinating sentiment (translation: because you deserve it) onto a strip of Sorbet cardstock from Concord & 9th, adhered it to the vellum and added a few more layers on the back for strength and dimension, before finishing off the card with satin gold sequins from Altenew.
I adhered my shaker panel to the card base and cut a couple of additional white panels to put on the inside of the card. This means I have a white panel to write my personal message, the card is a little sturdier because it’s now thicker, and the piece I adhered on the back of the front covers up the fact that I could actually see through parts of the card base after my little sawing earlier. Not shy about glue, remember? Yeah, the glue does its job, and I tore parts of it down to almost printer paper thickness. I added sequins to the front of the card (one covering up my stamping mishap) and I was done. At least I thought so… I was happy with the card, but then noticed as I was writing up the blog post for Papiria that the counter of the second P had slipped a little and wasn’t in the right spot anymore. It was bugging me. It was *really* bugging me, so I peeled it off, die cut a new one that I adhered in the right spot and took a couple of new photos. You can still see the droopy counter in the first two photos here, but that’s my card. I got there in the end.
These images in this scene are all from the Winterwood collection from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Holly Mabutas. We have 
I colored the scene with Copics, then stamped the critters and the snowman again, this time using Obsidian ink from Altenew to get crisp black lines. This is a pigment ink, which doesn’t play nice with Copics, but as long as the coloring’s already complete, using this ink is totally fine. I sprinkled on Chunky White embossing enamel from Stampendous, melted the granules from the back of the paper and finished off the card with a sentiment from the 
Not a whole lot of colors used given the large scene, but I did use 7 for the fox alone. But he came out so cute, it was totally worth it!
Papirmølla 