One of my favorite ways to color!

It's my day to share over on the Flourishes Newsletter for our Friday Focus and today -- it's all about adding vibrant color with colored pencils! If you click on the link, you'll find a tutorial on wonderful ways to add color on dark card stock!

Here over at my place, I thought I'd show you an easy way to add a soft look with colored pencils and Odorless Mineral Spirits! So... let's start!

Using Colored Pencils With Odorless Mineral Spirits

I started by stamping my tulip from the Stamp Simply Thank You set with Graphite Black Brilliance ink on my off white paper. Edited to add: You want to use a paper with "tooth". Papers that are ultra smooth really don't work well with this technique. You need something for the waxy colored pencils to grab on to - a bit of grain to hold the pigment. For my ink, I used Brilliance because it's one ink that doesn't smear when you apply the mineral spirits.
Then, I literally scribbled in color to the natural shadows on the stamp. I used Koh-i-noor pencils. Both Koh-i-noor and Prismacolor Pencils have a wonderful and waxy base, which allows you to really blend the colors as you add them! I used a deep pink for the petals and two shades of green for th stem and leaves.
Now, it's time to blend! I dipped my stump into the odorless mineral spirits. (I use Gamsol brand) and then, in small circular motions, I draw the color from the edges into the middle of my flower. I make sure to clean my stump off my scribbling the excess color off on a scratch piece of paper.
You do the same thing with the stem and leaves, making sure to clean the stump in between colors.

Here's a peek at my finished card...

Now, you don't have to use Odorless Mineral Spirits all the time with colored pencils. In fact, you can layer the color and use lighter shades of pencil to blend like I did in this card using the Magnolias in the Lilac set!
I colored my flower petals entirely with white, added Hot Pink to the areas where I wanted some shadows, and then blended by using my white pencil over top the entire flower again. The leaves were done by coloring them with Chartreuse, adding shadows of Dark Green and then coloring the entire leaves again with Chartreuse to blend.

For the full tutorial on layering and blending colors, be sure to check out the Flourishes Newsletter HERE. The Senior Design Team took me up on this challenge and did some absolutely gorgeous cards of their own too using all kinds of colored pencils! Just click onto the Flourishes blog and you'll find the link list there!

TGIF! See you back here soon!