Just because...

Just to decompress yesterday, I sat down with this bicycle stamp from Flower Soft - this is a huge and gorgeous image (sort of ironic that it took me half an hour to find it...)! I've been challenging myself to use my pencils differently - using a lighter hand, layering colors, letting the pencils blend themselves instead of using a solvent... so this is one of 'those' cards. Turns out the cardstock I can get here, which surely isn't anything special, has a decent tooth on it for this kind of pencil work. Fun stuff.

I also wanted to color something RED and play with layering different colors of Flower Soft - I pulled the Flower Soft out first to determine my color palette, and went from there. These are the pencils that I used, plus a tawny brown from my watercolor pencils that matched better with the Toffee:

Here's a close-up on the front basket of the bicycle..... When you layer colors of Flower Soft you do have to think ahead... I started with the Christmas Green - not my typical green but I love the dark boldness of it here. Next I put in some Ultrafine Toffee (sort of in the background). Next I added the Autumn Mix followed by Russet Red. So far I've liked the Autumn Mix on everyone's cards but my own, but I love the subtle combination here with the deeper red. While my glue was still a little tacky I sprinkled Ultrafine Strawberry over both areas. After everything dried, I added a little more Autumn Mix in a few spots. It was really fun to experiment and mix - don't be afraid to do that!

If you have questions please feel free to ask! Enjoy your weekend....