Hi, crafty friends! Yesterday was the start of the Coloring Club Challenge over on Instagram. Alberto Gava of alcohol marker fame is organizing it, and all throughout April there are different themes to follow for a total of ten challenges, each lasting three days. There are some great sponsors with prizes up for grabs and the first theme is monochrome. I shared the coloring of this cute mouse yesterday, and today, I have the finished card to show you.
I used grays for my coloring of this Wishing stamp from Purple Onion Designs. I love this large illustration from Stacey Yacula – it’s actually the first Purple Onion Designs image I ever colored, and as such, it holds a special place in my heart.
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.
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.
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!
I haven’t done any coloring since December, so I felt rusty. Thankfully, these images from Lili of the Valley are easy ones for jumping back in! Once my coloring was complete, I fussy cut him, leaving a thin white border around the edge. I didn’t want to cut away the “fuzzies” that are so typical of LOTV images, so by leaving a white border, I could preserve the look. I used an embossing folder (Quilted embossing folder from Concord & 9th) to create some interest in the background without being too distracting.
I cut down a few colors of cardstock from Concord & 9th to 3/16″ wide strips and glued them together on a scrap piece of white cardstock. The colors I used are Oceanside, Aqua Sky, Buttercup, Grapefruit and Honeysuckle. I mounted my stripped up panel at an angle, put a few foam squares behind the monkey and added him on top. I die cut hugs (Quilted die set from C9) three times from white cardstock, stacked them and adhered them on top of my strips next to the monkey. I then stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Gifting stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a black piece of cardstock from Concord & 9th. I added a couple of layers of black cardstock behind for strength and dimension and adhered it on top of the die cut word, before finishing off with a few sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Simple color combo this time.
I love Stacey’s images, they all work so well together to tell stories. I colored my scene with Copics and cut my panel down ever so slightly.
I stamped a sentiment from the 
Even with a fairly limited color palette on the card, I used quite a few Copics.
i colored the scene with Copics, before using a die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower to trim down my panel. I stamped a sentiment from the 
I used the Snowflake Oval Frame embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp to create some texture on a panel of white cardstock which I adhered directly to a top fold card base, before mounting the panel on foam tape to finish the card. Super simple, right?
A lot of Copics for this one.
This is one of those super simple cards. I stamped the image using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things and masked it before stamping the 
I stamped a sentiment from the 
I stuck to a pretty limited color palette, I feel, but there’s still a lot of markers.
I made a 
I created a shaped card using the Nesting Frames 8 die set from Lifestyle Crafts, and used a few sizes of this die for the patterned paper panels on my card, which are all created from the Vintage Spring Basics collection from Maja Design. I die cut a white doily using the English Tea Party die from Cheery Lynn, mounted it in the center of the card and added my circles on top. I die cut the letters to spell the boy’s name using Die 304 from Kort & Godt and adhered them to a strip I die cut with the Essential Stitched Sentiment Strips die set from My Favorite Things. I added some Studio Calico veneer stars to embellish and a button from Kort & Godt that I put on top of a bow I created from Chalk White seam binding which I’d colored with Copic B95 and B91. This took me back – I used to color seam binding with Copics to match my card sooo often back in the day, and it honestly made me a little nostalgic doing this.
The insides of the card have the same basic layout as the front, just different patterns, and I left the stitched circles plain white for the personal message. On the back of the card, I die cut a pre printed image from Kort & Godt, found another button and added a star on each side of it to finish.
Very limited color palette for this one, there wasn’t much to color.
I suggest you put this image in your cart, it’s so awesome. I colored it with my Copics, adding an actual no line horizon behind my critters to complete the wintry scene, before using a die from the Nesting Postage Stamps infinity die set from Hero Arts to turn it into a huge postage stamp. I then used the 
I created a top fold card base from Pure Poppy cardstock from Papertrey Ink, mounted my large postage stamp using lots of foam tape and adhered a few Snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish.
I actually used red markers for red this time, with a little bit of B14 where I wanted it to be darker than R29 can create on its own. I usually use earth tones for red, this was a fun change.
I took a quick look at the colors I’ve focused on recently to try to choose something different and opted for this blue green combo. I colored the image with Copics and added a horizon in the distance with a few trees scattered about.
I made sure not to add to many trees so there would be room for the sentiment, which I stamped in Oceanside ink from Concord & 9th. The sentiment itself is from the Snøstorm stamp set from byCino. I die cut my panel using the lartest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX 1 set from My Favorite Things, before I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous. I made sure that none of the granules covered the sentiment or the eyes of the polar bears before melting the powder from the back.
I adhered my panel to a card base I’d covered with a quarter sheet of Oceanside cardstock from Concord & 9th. This is actually a side fold card. I usually make top fold cards, but I didn’t have any landscape oriented card bases on hand and didn’t feel like breaking open a new pack of cardstock. Long live lazy crafting, right?
Very cool color palette for this one.
Papirmølla 