My favorite paper

This is one of my favorite ways to start out a card. I picked up several sets of Basic Grey and Cosmo Cricket designer paper at Hobby Lobby - they frequently have them 50% off, so I like to stock up then. I love these 12 x 12 clear sleeves - they have half-size pockets at the front, so I can store scraps where they're easy to see.

I finally got a new set of watercolor markers last week (once again, hooray for Hobby Lobby coupons and sales - I've gotten to where I don't take advantage of craft-store coupons every time, but it's really nice when one comes along for a larger item like this), so I've been enjoying having a better selection of colors to work with. I like to pick several colors that coordinate with the patterned paper to color with.

Flowahbella is one of my favorite Bellas for an all-occasion card - she's elegant but fun, and of course I love her wild curly hair. The coloring on this is pretty simple - I didn't do much shading with the pencils themselves, just filled in the spaces with the colors I picked. I do the shading when I start watercoloring - the aquapen I'm holding here is such a great tool for watercoloring. You have great control over how much water you use, and to change colors, you just wipe it off on a paper towel. I do my shading at this stage - I just draw more of the color over to the areas where I want the shadows to be (in this case, on the right).

Aaaand, this would be why I always stamp my image twice. And why I never color the bellas' skin. I keep forgetting, and doing it, then remembering why it was a bad idea. See, the problem is, if I color their legs, then their faces look weird blank... and if I color the faces, then their mouths look weird blank. And then I go to color the mouths... and they look like rabid zombies who've gotten a little too fond of the taste of human flesh. So, I take the lessons I learned from If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and just don't color the legs.





So here, I started over with my spare image, and you can see a little better how I do the shading. She's almost done!







The finished card - I used all of the scraps I'd picked earlier, with some PaperTrey Ink Sweet Blush cardstock that I had in my scrap box. I used most of the scraps as-is, with a minimum of trimming - I like to see what kind of layout I can come up with if I don't fiddle with it too much. I may add a sentiment later if I end up having an occasion to use it for, or I may just leave it as-is to send to someone "just because."