Inspire Me Monday: Just a touch of color

Hi all! Happy Monday! I have a quick little tutorial for you today that is super fun and super quick with, I think, dreamy results! Working full time, I don't often have hours to color. While I love, love, love it and enjoy every time I can spend in my crafting space coloring, it's not something I can do often. I have made a huge promise to myself to send every card I make and make a point to create for those special occasions. So, how can you create a card in a jiffy that's special with a burst of color? Why not try stippling color! You're about to see what I mean!

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

• Two shades of dye-based ink for each area you would like to color
• Small stipple brushes for each color family
• Water Brush
• Stamp set of choice

I started by stamping the image from the set Simply Camelias in Bamboo Leaves Memento ink. It's a nice crisp color but not overwhelming like the color black might be with this technique.

To start, I grabbed one of my small stipple brushes and the Bamboo Leaves ink pad and started to tamp down color. I dabbed on the color, refreshing my brush with ink after every 4th or 5th touch. I knew when the color started to really fade, it was time to add more ink! You can see below that I loaded color at the center veins of each leaf. After I was done with the Bamboo Leaves color, I added more green using New Sprout Memento ink.

I then went to the center of the flowers using Angel Pink Memento Ink...

From there, I knew the stems would remain colorless unless I decided to color them another way. So, I grabbed my water brush and, using the ink on the lid, picked up the color with a water brush.

... and painted up the stems! I love how doing this gives it a soft look in the end.

Once I was done with this step, I really thought the centers of my flowers could be a little bolder, so I added Memento Rose Bud ink to the centers...

I think the result is a little dreamy color! Before I layered up my creation, I did load up my water brush with a really wet brush, picked up more of the Bamboo Leaves ink from my ink pad lid, and then flicked on additional color around my image for a fun effect. I accented with some sequins and added a sentiment, also from the Simpy Camellias stamp set. 

Just to show how fun this technique can be with different stamp sets, I used Power Poppy's lilac branch from the retired Lilac Time stamp set. Now, this clear set may be retired but you can get this same effect using the digital stamp set. I would just convert the image to a light grey or light green like I used. The digital version of this set is called French Lilac and... it's on sale right now!

For the flowers, you can see that I used Lulu Lavender, Sweet Plum and then the same greens -- Bamboo Leaves and New Sprout -- for the leaves. That little ladybug was super easy. I just dabbed on some color from my Rose Bud ink pad. For the ink splotches added to the background, I used Lulu Lavender.

And, if you look real close, you can see the little dabs of glitter glue that I added to the centers of the flowers just for a little extra pizazz!

And that, my friends, is it -- a quick and easy way to add color in a jiffy! I think Marcella's illustrations are so beautiful, this soft use just shows them off all the more!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'll be back again tomorrow to usher in another edition of our Creative Confetti Challenge! So, swing by and see what I have in store!