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Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Polychromatic Coloring

 

Today we are sharing some coloring ideas using some simple coloring techniques as backgrounds for greeting cards that will give lots of detail while using only a couple alcohol markers or colored pencils.. We will be also adding a die cut to add dimension and design to today's project.

Welcome to my journey as I become an Altenew Educator sharing ideas and techniques that will help you learn to become a better card maker and designer. And even more than that, to use the supplies that you have in your stash to create something you can be proud of.

Today I will be showing you how to use one of my favorite Altenew Stamp Sets-Beautiful Day! It is one of the most versatile stamps sets you can have in your stash. Not only for layering, but also for coloring too. 

Supplies

  • Beautiful Day Stamp set
  • Dye ink just a little darker than the cardstock.
  • Birthday Greeting Stamp Set
  • Acrylic block
  • Light colored cardstock
  • White cardstock for the base
  • Medium to large sentiment die cut
  • Alcohol markers in the same color family
  • Colored pencils in the same color family
  • Die cutting machine
  • Double sided tape
  • Double sided foam tape
  • White PVC glue
  • Paper Trimmer
  • Bone Folder


Card 1-Blue Birthday Card

Light Blue Cardstock
Deeper blue cardstock
Altenew Teal Cove Crisp Dye Ink
Silver metallic paper
Blue colored pencil
Deep blue colored pencil
Blue sequins

I started this project using colored pencils. Because of the richness in the flowered image, I wanted to have control over the strokes and colors that I used. 

Even though this card has flowers, beacuse of the color, I felt comfortable that I could use this card as a masculine card because of the blue color that I used.

Any two colored pencils will work fine as long as they are in the same color family.

In this case, I colored the darker colored sections where the shadowing would be first.  Then I used the lighter color on the petals and gave it a little shading.


  1. Cut the base card with the paper trimmer to 5" by 7" 
  2. Cut a layer at 4 1/2" by 6 2/8" This is the deep blue layer
  3. Cut a second layer at 4" by5 1/2 ". This is the white layer
  4. Cut a yellow paper at 4" by 5 1/2 ". This is the light blue layer.
  5. On the light blue paper, stamp the outline flower stamp from the Beautiful Day stamp set with the Teal Cove ink.
  6. Give it a moment to dry
  7. Select your colored pencils. You will want two colors that are close together in color-one darker and one lighter.
  8. Start with the darker color. Color in the Shadowed areas first.
  9. Then add the lighter color to the rest of the flower using a feathering motion.
  10. If you choose, you can add more color closest to the center of the flower using the darker tone or a second addition of the lighter tone.
  11.  You are ready to cut the die cut into your designed paper.
  12. Set up the plates for die cutting as recommended by the manufacturer.
  13. Place your die cut up, but the stamped flowers, facing the die. This is important so that your design will appear the right way when you assemble your card. You want to place the die at least 1/3 below the top of the paper.
  14. Cut the die in your die cutting machine.
  15. Remove the die from the paper. You can save the die cut for another project.
  16. Turn the paper over and place it in your paper trimmer. 
  17. Carefully cut both sides of the paper so that the edges are removed.
  18. Use double sided tape on the back of the stamped paper, but add glue to the remaining bits that are left from the die cut.
  19. Adhere this to the top layer of the card.
  20. Cut another sentiment from the same die cut in metallic paper. 
  21. Glue the sentiment into the spot that was left from your stamped sheet
  22. Adhere the designed layer to the darker blue layer with double sided tape
  23. Adhere the darker blue layer to the card base with foam tape.
  24. Add additional sentiments and embellishments as desired.

You are working within one pastel color for this project with slight color variations.
You can use any markers that you might have. Copics, Spectrum Noir, and Altenew will all work as long as you have a slight color variation in the color family.
The same goes for colored pencils. Use what you have. Select two colored pencils that will work with your color selection.
Test the markers and /or colored pencils on the paper that you have selected before you start coloring the flowers. Different markers and colored pencils may react differently to different paper.
Metallic adhesive paper makes the task of adding your larger sentiment a lot easier. You can avoid the glue!
The extra sentiments on this project were created with stamped embossed techniques.


Card 2-Yellow Birthday Card







    Yellow cardstock
    Cream cardstock.
    Spectrum Noir markers
     Gold sequins
Altenew Honey Drizzle Crisp Dye Ink

  You can use any alcohol markers that you may   have. All you need is two markers that are in   the same color family. They need to be one   color and then one color number above that.         You can add highlights by layering the same   color several times.

  I chose to add a lot of depth to this   background  for my design. However, you can   chose to only add a light single tone on the       card  and then the darker tone to add definition   to the design.


  1. Cut the base card with the paper trimmer to 5" by 7" 
  2. Cut a layer at 4 1/2" by 5 1/2"
  3. Cut a second layer at 4 1/4" by 6"
  4. Cut a yellow paper at 4 1/4" by 6"
  5. On the yellow paper, stamp the outline flower stamp from the Beautiful Day stamp set
  6. Give it a moment to dry
  7. Select your alcohol markers. I used Spectrum Noir markers # GB4 and Colorista marker in Canary.
  8. Color all of the shaded areas with the darker of your two markers.
  9. Then add the lighter color to the rest of the flower using a feathering motion.
  10. If you choose, you can add more color closest to the center of the flower using the darker tone or a second addition of the lighter tone.
  11. Once the color is dry, you are ready to cut the die cut into your designed paper.
  12. Set up the plates for die cutting as recommended by the manufacturer.
  13. Place your die cut up, but the stamped flowers, facing the die. This is important so that your design will appear the right way when you assemble your card. You want to place the die at least 1/3 below the top of the paper.
  14. Cut the die in your die cutting machine.
  15. Remove the die from the paper. You can save the die cut for another project.
  16. Turn the paper over and place it in your paper trimmer. 
  17. Carefully cut both sides of the paper so that the edges are removed.
  18. Use double sided tape on the back of the stamped paper, but add glue to the remaining bits that are left from the die cut.
  19. Adhere this to the top layer of the card.
  20. Cut another sentiment from the same die cut.
  21. Glue the sentiment into the spot that was left from your stamped sheet
  22. Use double sided tape to adhere the bottom layer to the base.
  23. Use foam tape on the second layer and adhere that to the bottom layer.
  24. Add additional sentiments and embellishments as desired.
I hope that you will look at color and use variations of color to create a polychromatic greeting card soon. Using what you have in different ways helps you stretch your craft dollars. Especially when you are starting out or building your colors, it is helpful to build variations n different color families. 




We would love to hear your comments, thoughts and ideas on this project. Please make sure to drop a note below and let us know that you stopped by. 

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Linda

 

Supplies To Make A Polychromatic Card

By Linda Correa
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