it's a new day

Hi friends! I am over on the Pinkfresh Studio YouTube channel today with a video using two of my illustrations: It’s A New Day and Floral Focus! When I was illustrating these two sets, I actually intended for them to be paired together; you can see that the blooms and foliage coordinate! These were released awhile ago, but I haven’t found an opportunity to pair them together until now. The Floral Focus background stamp is a very detailed image, and I love pairing super detailed images with heat embossing and vellum… it reminds me of lace. I still wanted to have some soft color, so I used the coordinating Floral Focus Stencils to add some subtle color on the panel behind the embossing.

You can watch the video above or on the Pinkfresh Studio YouTube Channel by clicking HERE.

I started by heat embossing the Floral Focus background stamp on an A2 panel of vellum using white embossing powder. I adore the effect that this technique has, creating an elegant, delicate, super feminine look. The coordinating Floral Focus Stencils are a super quick way to add color to the stamped image, but they also have very handy tick marks in the corners of the stencil which, when centered over an A2 card panel, allow you to create a colorful background without even having to stamp the image! I used Peach Fuzz, Coral Reef, Meadow, and Emerald City inks from Pinkfresh Studio with the stencils; you can see in the video that the stenciled panel alone would make a pretty background by itself! I wanted to soften those colors a bit, though, which is where the embossed vellum overlay comes in. It helps to make the colors more subtle without getting rid of them completely. I love the effect!

Next, it was time to do some watercoloring. You can see that I used this particular flower from the It’s A New Day stamp set for the Floral Focus background… I love having multiple options to create a coordinated look! I heat embossed the images from It’s A New Day onto some Fabriano Artistico Hot Press watercolor paper using white embossing powder to keep the embossing cohesive between the elements. I used my Karin Brushmarker Pro markers to add color to the images in coordinating shades of peach and emerald. (If you’ve been struggling with Karin markers, I share a few tips in my video on how to get good results with them!) Once I had finished watercoloring the butterfly ranunculus, a bud, and some foliage, I die cut the images with the It’s A New Day die.

Vellum can be a little tricky, because most adhesives will show through the semi-transparent paper, so before attempting to adhere the vellum panel, I first arranged my floral die cuts and a die cut sentiment created using the Wonderful Sentiments Hot Foil Plate and coordinating dies. I adhered the die cuts to the vellum panel using foam adhesive, then flipped over the panel and hid my super strong double sided tape behind the solid die cuts. I carefully placed the vellum panel over the top of the stenciled panel to make sure that the patterns lined up properly. The final touch was to add a few Bubblegum gems for some sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

Hi there! I am so very excited to be a part of the Pinkfresh Studio April Release Blog Hop today, as I have illustrated two new stamp sets debuting in today’s release: Miss Your Smile (and coordinating stencils) and It’s A New Day (plus coordinating dies and stencils). I have two projects to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

For my first project, I wanted to show the details and fun stencils in the It’s A New Day stamps, coordinating dies, and stencils. I follow several florists on Instagram, and from their beautiful photos I get lots of inspiration. One of the photos featured some beautiful, fluffy blooms whose name I didn’t know; I asked the florist and was told that they were butterfly ranunculus. Well, my head kind of exploded with inspiration, and I used these beautiful flowers as the inspiration for both my Floral Focus background stamp and today’s new It’s A New Day stamp set. (I tried to make it so that they coordinate with each other as kind of a “set.”) While the Floral Focus set is a background, the It’s A New Day set features individual blooms and foliage so that you can build your own bouquets and wreaths. The stamps and dies are super user-friendly; they are all grouped together as one piece, so that you can stamp and die cut all of the images in one pass! I began by heat embossing the images from It’s A New Day on some white cardstock using platinum embossing powder.

Next, I used the It’s A New Day stencils with some Peach Fuzz, Coral Reef, Meadow, and Mint inks from Pinkfresh Studio to add shading and details. (The stencils are conveniently grouped in the same formation as the stamps and dies. Love the ease of these new products!) I die cut the individual images in one pass through my die cut machine with the coordinating die. The geniuses over at Pinkfresh Studio used the same “one pass” concept for the new Perfect Sentiments stamps and die (and even an awesome hot foil plate if you have a hot foil machine!)-one large stamp with tons of sentiments on it and one large die to cut them all out in one pass through your machine! I heat embossed the sentiments again using Platinum embossing powder and die cut them with the coordinating die.

I also die cut a Essentials: Diagonals Stitched Plaid cover plate die from some more white cardstock, then cut the Essentials: Inverted Scallop Circle die from another piece of white cardstock to create a frame upon which I could arrange my stenciled blooms. I adhered the blooms and circular frame using foam adhesive, then added the greeting with a double layer of foam adhesive to make it pop up even further from the floral arrangement. The final step was to add a few Essentials: Jewels in some iridescent, creamy yellow for a bit of sparkle.

For my second project today, I used just the new Miss Your Smile stamps to do some no-line Copic coloring. I designed this stamp set to be huge to fit on a slimline card front… and I don’t know about you, but I just adore coloring massive, gigantic, oversized blooms. It’s just fun for me to get down into the nooks and crannies and really dig in to get as much depth and shadows as I can.

I stamped the image from Miss Your Smile onto some white Copic-friendly cardstock using no-line coloring ink, then used Copic markers to color the images. (I’ve shared the swatches above so that you can use the color combinations, if you wish!) Bonus: if coloring isn’t your thing, there are some fabulous coordinating layered stencils available so that you can add lots of color and details with your favorite inks and blending brushes!

One of my Copic tricks is similar to my watercoloring techniques: add multiple layers. Copic markers react with each other differently depending on which color you lay down first. You can create an entirely different overall blend if you lay down one color vs another, then use that as the base to blend your colors. For detailed coloring like this, I like to start out with the lightest three shades in my quartet of Copic colors, coloring all of the petals using only those three colors. I then go back in with the darkest shade to add just hints of deep shadow in what I think would be the darkest areas and blend that out with the lightest three shades. I try to keep the top petals as light as possible, usually keeping them the “original” three shades and not adding any extra shadows.

After I’d finished my coloring, I used a black fineliner pen and my T-square to add a frame around the edge of the card front, as well as the stamens on my cherry blossoms. I heat embossed a greeting from Miss Your Smile (how perfect is the “I just miss you” sentiment for these strange Covid times?) using white embossing powder onto a strip of black cardstock, popping it up and adding a few black jewels to add of sparkle and make the black accents look intentional.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I am so very excited for these latest designs that I illustrated for Pinkfresh. I’d love to know what you think of them!!

Now for some fun giveaway information!

Pinkfresh Studio will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel! They will also be giving away a total of TEN $25 gift cards along the hop. As per usual with blog hops – the winners will be picked from the comments. The winners will be posted on May 6 , 2021 on the GIVEAWAY PAGE. You must check that page & claim your prize within 2 weeks of the winner’s announcement.

The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!