GDT Tracie

Hello Dare 2B Artzy Friends!!

Can you believe it is the middle of April already?!

Anyway, we have a sweet new Guest Designer to feature this month, please help us welcome Tracie Pond!

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 I am happily married to my husband, Jason, for 19 years. Our only kids are our two senior labradoodles. Home is beautiful West Michigan just a couple of miles off Lake Michigan. I never pictured myself living near a lake, but we have been here going on two years and love it. I have an accounting degree and decided to leave my corporate accounting career around 12 years ago. This is when I started dabbling in cardmaking. My love and dedication for cardmaking and the community continue to grow every day. It has been a true joy getting more involved in the cardmaking community the last couple of years and my hopes is that continues to grow. I have been crafting in some form most of my life. Other interests: flower gardening, nature walks and spending time with my family.

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 My card today features the beautiful Blossom Stamp Set. This stamp set contains two gorgeous flowers and four amazing sentiments. The creative options are endless with this set, but I decided to do some coloring with my Prismacolor colored pencils.

I started by stamping the cluster of flowers in an alternating pattern on an A2 card panel. Then I selected a couple of yellow, green and pink colored pencils. I proceeded to color all of the flowers with just a base layer. Then I decided which one I wanted to be the focal point and added some layers and shading. I am not a coloring expert, so this is just simple coloring. These stamps actually do a lot of the work for you. I traced the lines of the focal image with a black Copic multiliner. Finally, I colored the background with a blue Copic marker. The white spots were created by applying some Copic blending solution to a nubby rag and then touching it to the background. I did this to small sections at a time and heat set to stop the ink movement. Finally I applied glossy accents to the centers of the flowers.

While the glossy accents was drying I white heat embossed the sentiment to the upper right hand corner of a black piece of cardstock measuring 4-3/16″ x 5-3/8″. This panel was then adhered to an A2 top folding card base. I proceeded to trim the colored panel to 4″ x 5-1/4″ and then trimmed the top with an angle. I added a thin strip of silver glitter cardstock to the top of the colored panel and then adhered to the black panel with a piece of craft foam in-between. A lot of love went into this card. I usually finish my cards in one sitting, but this card took me a couple of days to complete.

 

I hope I inspired you to color some pretty flowers.

 

Thank you to both Cindy and Kendra for inviting me to be Dare 2B Artsy’s April guest designer. Dare 2B Artsy was new to me, but when I spotted all of the gorgeous flowers, it was an easy decision. I just had to create with a couple and so glad I did. I hope you enjoy what I have to share with you this month.

Crafty Hugs,

Tracie