Two Growing Green Sponged Colour Cards

I came across this beautiful floral 'with love' card that had been made with the SU! Fabulous Florets stamp set.  I saved the card on a Pinterest board because I wanted to use the method of  colouring that Loll had used on her card.  I don't have the Fabulous Florets set so I've substituted the Growing Green set.  I'm not good at colouring in, I know many people say they find colouring quite relaxing but I'm afraid it can be quite fraught and stressful for me!  I'm always envious of beautifully watercoloured stamped open line images and I'm never satisfied with my own efforts - shading just seems to defeat me!  I know I tend to make life easier for myself by using solid image stamps and I admittedly don't practise my colouring enough - and I'm a big fan of paper piecing!  Loll's results were stunning so I couldn't wait to give this sponging method a go.

I sponged Pink Pirouette ink onto Whisper White CS and stamped a few flowers over the top with Early Espresso ink.  I sponged some Pretty in Pink ink over the flowers, cut them out in layers and then edged each flower piece with Regal Rose ink using a sponge dauber.  I added some deeper colour in the centre of the flower with Regal Rose ink squeezed onto the ink pad lid which I picked up with a blender pen.  For the leafy stem, I sponged Certainly Celery ink onto Whisper White CS, then sponged on some Lucky Limeade ink, stamped the leafy image, cut it out and then sponged the edges with Old Olive ink on a sponge dauber.

I was in the mood to make a shaped card and I decided to use oval and Labels 10 Nestie dies so I die cut all the shapes for the card base and layers.  I stamped the white layer with the French Script background stamp in Crumb Cake ink after stamping off once first and I sponged the edges.  I stamped the sentiment, punched out the oval and sponged the edges with Regal Rose ink.  I then attached the leafy stem to the white panel with glue dots and then applied my flower layers by popping each layer up with 3d foam pads.  So that the card would stand up for display, I cut a smidge off the bottom of the oval.  I added some gems to finish off the front.

Here's the inside and the envelope.

After I'd finished I realised I'd gone well away from Loll's clean and simple look and I wished I'd kept to a panel with lots of white space as Loll had done with her original card.  I think that's what made her card so striking and what attracted me to it in the first place so I just had to make another card.  I still haven't managed as pure a CAS look as Loll but this does have more white space at least.  It gave me more practise at this method of colouring and that's no bad thing - and I must say it's a fab, easy method, I love it! 

I coloured the flowers exactly as I did for the previous card but I did the leafy stem a wee bit differently for this card.  I stamped the leafy stem onto Whisper White CS first, sponged Pear Pizzazz ink over the stamped image, added some light Old Olive ink sponging over the image, cut out the stem and edged the image with Old Olive ink.   Again, I've used glue dots to attach the stem and I've popped up the flower layers with 3d foam pads.  I stamped a sentiment, added some striped grosgrain ribbon and added olive gems to punched photo corners to finish off the front. 

Here's the inside and envelope for my second card.  I stamped the stems in Old Olive and left those plain but coloured and cut out a few smaller flowers from the Growing Green set for the inside of the card.

Supplies for Birthday Wishes card:
Stamps: SU! Growing Green & Watercolor Trio sets, SU! French Script bg stamp, 'fabulous birthday' from Hero Arts
CS: SU! Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso & Whisper White
Ink: SU! Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Lucky Limeade & Old Olive
Tools: Petite Oval & Labels Ten Nestabilities dies, SU! plain oval punch, sponges & sponge daubers, blender pen
Embellishments & accessories:  SU! rhinestone gems, glue dots & 3d foam pads


Supplies for Warm Wishes card:
Stamps: SU! Growing Green & Cheer & Wishes sets
CS: SU! Pink Pirouette, Early Espresso, Old Olive & Whisper White
Ink: SU! Early Espresso, Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Pear Pizzazz & Old Olive
Tools: SU! Photo Corners punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig, sponges & sponge daubers, blender pen
Embellishments & accessories: olive rhinestone gems, SU! Pretty in Pink striped grosgrain ribbon, glue dots & 3d foam pads