Thinking Of You with Pansies and Pencils!

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!

Hi friends! I have a project to share with you today using one of my favorite colors: blush pink. It’s February, the month of valentines, making it completely appropriate to use pink in any and all shades. I have been helping my husband write the eulogy for his grandfather, and it has been a very therapeutic way to release some of the feelings that I have with the loss of such a tremendous man. I also found this detailed pencil work to be extremely therapeutic as a creative release. Let’s get started with the details!

To start my project, I selected some lovely blush cardstock from my stash. I love the look of colored pencil on colored cardstock, and this shade of blush worked beautifully when paired with the Just a Note Pansy set that I illustrated for Simon Says Stamp. I have been privileged to illustrate several stamp sets for Simon Says Stamp, and I never seem to have as much time to devote to them each as I would like! I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to allow my mind to decompress as I did some therapeutic coloring. Colored pencils are a labor of love, but the end result is certainly worth it, in my opinion.

I stamped the corner pansy image from Just a Note Pansy in the corners of a slightly-smaller-than-A2 panel of blush cardstock, placing them exactly opposite each other by using my MISTI, then rotating the cardstock 180* and stamping the image again directly opposite from the initial image. I stamped the image first with white pigment ink, which is my typical preferred ink for colored pencils, but because the cardstock is so light, it was difficult to see the white lines, so I stamped again with Cheeky ink. The initial layer of white pigment ink helped to soften the pink ink while also allowing it to be absorbed easily into the subsequent pencil layers.

After I had finished my pencil coloring, I cut the Fancy Thinking of You die three times from more of the same blush cardstock that I used for my card front and base, layering them together to create a dimensional die cut greeting. I adhered the colored panel to a full sized A2 panel of blush cardstock, leaving a thin solid blush border around the edge, then added the greeting to the center of the card with liquid adhesive. Finally, I added some blush pink gems to dot the i’s in the greeting die cut. I kept the card simple, as I feel like a sympathy card should be without too much excitement and flash. To me, the detailed coloring shows the level of feeling for the recipient without being overly bright and inappropriate to the situation.

Well, that’s all for my project today! Something simple to start your February off, but I can’t resist the opportunity to use my colored pencils. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!