Hello Creative Friends! Today I’m showing you a quick and easy coloring technique using Distress Crayons. If you visited the Creative Scrapbooking Carnival in Calgary a few weeks ago and stopped by the Wild Whisper Designs booth, this was one of the cards that I was demonstrating.
What I love about this quick coloring technique how easy it is to add color to the Wild Whisper Designs paper. The Wild Whisper patterned paper is so smooth, it works incredibly well for blending Distress Crayons.
This technique is meant to be used on patterned paper or in places where you want to add color, but perfect blending is less of a priority. I love detailed coloring projects, but sometimes I just want to get color on the page in a quick and easy way.
Stamping Flower Images
Start with a piece of your favorite patterned paper. Choose a design that has soft images or a neutral background. Avoid choosing a paper that has strong graphical images. For this project I used the Pam Bray Watercolor paper because of the soft colors and beautiful design.
Using the flower stamp from the Wild Whisper Designs Strength of the Season stamp set and Jet Black Archival Ink, stamp the flower image randomly onto the patterned paper. Let the Archival Ink dry for a few minutes before moving onto the next step.
Blending Flower Images with Distress Crayons
Apply strokes of Distress Crayon onto the sunflower images. Do not cover the whole surface but add small marks in areas close to the flower center. Using your finger, blend the color outward from the flower center. This should make the color near the flower center more intense, and the blend lighter moving outward.
The intention is that there should be a color difference between the flower and the background. But there should be no definite line where the color begins and ends.
Continue to add more Distress Crayon until you get the intensity of color that you like. You also don’t need to stick to one color of Distress Crayon. Add in highlights, shadows, and other colors to the flowers by blending in different colors of Distress Crayon.
Be aware that depending on the surface of your patterned paper, you may get a slightly different result. The Wild Whisper Designs patterned paper used in this tutorial is very smooth, which makes blending with Distress Crayons very easy. If you are having trouble getting a smooth blend with your paper, wet your finger with a bit of water or a baby wipe before blending. The water will activate the color and help it move smoothly over the surface.
Add Distress Crayon to Flower Centers
To complete the flowers, add crayon to the flower centers. To blend this out, you can also use your finger. But if you want a more precise or softer look, you can use a water brush to dilute the color slightly. This will give you a more definitive edge to your flower center over blending with your finger.
Adding Fussy Cut Flowers
If you would like to create more layers on this project, stamp flower images onto white cardstock, color with Distress Crayon and fussy cut. If you would like to see the step-by-step process, please reference this article for more information on to quickly color and cut out flowers.
Add these fussy cut flowers to your surface with your favorite adhesive. Consider placing the flowers in a way that creates odd numbered groupings with the background images.
Adding a Sentiment
Finish this card by adding a sentiment or phrase. For this card I used “live life in full bloom” from the Strength of the Season stamp set.
Finish off this card by adhering it to a card back. In my case, I matched the white of my sentiment with the card back to give this card a more cohesive and finished look.
I hope that this has given you some ideas on how patterned paper, stamps and Distress Crayons can be used to create a beautiful card very quickly and easily. Depending on the patterned paper you choose, this can create very different results. In the photo below I have used two different patterned papers using this technique.
Wild Whisper Designs Products
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Strength of the Seasons Stamp Set
Pam Bray Watercolor Paper Collection
I hope that you have a great weekend and take some time for creative self-care!
