Cherry Blossoms

I love Spring and the beauty of the flora coming to life. Recently, I was in Washington DC for business and felt so fortunate to see the cherry trees in full bloom. So you can image how thrilled I was to recieve this image from Toni at The Digi Shack.

To celebrate the grand opening, you can download this cherry blossom image free. No kidding! :)
If you want a chance to win 5 free downloads, use this FREE image along with the Sketch posted on The Digi Shack website. When posting to SCS or PCP, please use the keyword TDSSC01.

For more deets, hop over to The Digi Shack.

Recipe:
Stamps: Digital image- Cherry Blossom (The Digi Shack), Sentiment- Believe (Studio g- series 6-VS4911)
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Sahara Sand, Regal Rose, WW(SU!), Designer- The Paper Stack-Matchmakers 2 (DCWV)
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Sahara Sand, Regal Rose, Mellow Moss (SU)
Accessories: Nestabilities - scallop and oval, scallop oval and small oval punches (SU), white brads (Paper Studio)
Techniques: watercoloring

This card was super easy but took a little while to assemble because of all the layers. I wanted to use my scallop nestie for The Digi Shack sketch challenge so I measured my nestie and then sized my cherry blossom digital image on the computer so it would fit in the scallop circle...next I loaded the printer with cardstock , and hit 'print'. Voila! I love that I can size the images according to the size of my project. Isn't that so cool?! I've been thinking about my next party- it will be awesome to have matching invitations, party favors, paper napkin rings, yada, yada, yada...using the same image just sized according to project. I have as much fun prepping for the party as I do at the party! {oh I digressed...sorry}

My favorite technique for coloring is ink and a blender pen. I like the fine point of the blender and using ink allows the ability to layer and blend easily. Most of the time I squeeze my SU ink pads so that the ink pad leaves ink on the lid; then I open it up and pick up that 'lid' ink with my blender pen and transfer to my image. The squeeze technique is also a good way to determine when it's time to re-ink your pad; if your lid looks virtually dry, better get out those lil' bottles. For the flowers, I colored them all with pink pirouette. Then, in the natually shaded areas I added two more layers (one at a time) of pink pirouette. The flower's centers recieved a little Regal Rose and a touch of Summer Sun with the fine tip of the SU! marker. Maybe someday I'll like copics as much as do blender pen watercoloring.

For the brads, I measured and pencil marked the intervals and the center on the opposite side of the pink cardstock {it looked like a little grid} then punched and threaded the brads. I hardly every free lance brad or eyelet placement anymore...I've resigned myself to the fact that I need to measure. {that was probably after the 10th ruined card! LOL!} Cheers to those who can hold a handheld circle punch without trepidation!

Thanks for dropping by and have a super day!!