“Comfort Coloring” with Simon Says Stamp!

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

Hi friends! I am back today with a vibrant Copic card featuring some “comfort coloring.” You know how people have “comfort food” and “comfort shows,” things they eat or watch or listen to when they need to feel better? Well, sometimes coloring fulfills that role for me, especially when things get a little crazy both personally and in the world at large. The last few months have been more than a little stressful for me for a variety of reasons, and I am not sure when that stress will start to abate, but now that the holidays are officially over and my kiddos are all back in school, I’m hoping that things will start to resemble something like normalcy. I needed some stress-relief the other day, so I began looking through my Simon Says Stamp bins and pulling out things that just made me happy to look at, including the beautiful Anemone Cluster embossing folder. I am always up for a gorgeous embossing folder, adding some vibrant color and enhancing the already-exquisite details with some intense coloring.

*I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*

To begin my project, I ran a panel of white cardstock through my die cutting machine using the Anemone Cluster embossing folder. The detail on this embossing folder is absolutely spectacular on it’s own, but I wanted to add to the incredible texture by doing some really detailed coloring. This kind of intense coloring session is really therapeutic for me; it allows me to get lost in the details, working closely to make sure that I am keeping the edges of each petal as clean and crisp as possible and that the contrast between light and dark is extra visible. I used vibrant shades of purple and emerald green Copic markers to create these lovely purple anemones. Did you know that anemone flowers come in a huge variety of colors? They’re such beautiful blooms, and definitely one of my favorites!

After I had finished coloring all of the images, I used blending brushes to blend both Orchid & Morning Pawsitively Saturated Ink around the edges of the card front, creating an ethereal halo behind the flowers and enhancing the gorgeous purple of the blooms with the combination. Because the color on the blooms is so intense, I did not have to worry about the subtle blending changing the color of my meticulously-colored images.

For the greeting, I used some pewter toner foil with the You Sentiment Strips and a foiling machine to add lovely shine to the simple sentiment strips. I used my guillotine trimmer to trim the strips down, then paired the “wishing” and “love and happiness” strips with a die cut Fancy You. I cut the shadow layer from Simon Says Stamp’s Plum Glitter Cardstock and the detail layer from plain white cardstock, adhering the two together with liquid adhesive. I arranged the three sentiment components on the colorful card front, adhering them with foam adhesive for extra dimension. Finally, I added a smattering of Prism Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for added sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today. If you find yourself in need of some comfort, I highly recommend pulling out your favorite images and your medium of choice and lose yourself in your artistic efforts. It really does help to take your mind off of things that are weighing on you! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!